Blame it On the Moon
by RebeccaSwanCullen
Summary: At twenty-one now, Bella Swan is ready to take on the world… and when you know that her whole world has always been Edward Cullen, is it honestly any wonder if things spin pretty fast out of control? AU/AH B/E.
1. Of the risks of what you wear

**Author**: **Rebecca. **

**Title**: **Blame it on the Moon. **

**Category**: AU. All human. Edward and Bella.

**Rating**: **M**

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own anything so don't sue if you're not happy with what I wrote, you wouldn't be gaining anything!

**Summary**: _At twenty-one now, Bella Swan is ready to take on the world… and when you know that her whole world has always been Edward Cullen, is it honestly any wonder if things spin pretty fast out of control?_

**AN:** This is just a little something I wrote a while back and didn't have the opportunity to post here yet… it's gonna be short, only 5, 6 parts but I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless… reviews are of course much appreciated so don't hesitate to share your thoughts!

Enjoy!

**Prologue:**_** Of the risks of what you wear, you should always be aware.**_

**I**sabella Swan was a woman on a mission and she was definitely dressed to look the part.

The tight leather suit she was wearing was clearly having the effect she had been going for and she couldn't help but smile as she noticed how many heads she turned on her way, as she walked to the bar at the back of the club, displaying more confidence than she was truly feeling.

Entering 'New Moon' and passing the two bulky bouncers at the front door had been a mere formality for her, much to the dismay of the many young people all too ready to party who had been waiting for hours outside, but you couldn't be the sister of one of the main owners of the most prestigious nightclub the town had ever known and not take advantage of the situation from time to time if you could.

She knew well that Emmett didn't especially appreciate to see her coming to the club, but Bella also knew that for once he wouldn't be able to lecture her on the fact that he thought that this kind of scene was no place for a woman like her. She couldn't even remember how many times she had heard him say so in actual fact, but she probably had every time she had come and seen him alone while he was working.

He didn't like to see his little sister in there with men half drunk if not completely, behaving like pigs around her, or ogling her shamelessly, or so Rosalie, Emmett's girlfriend who she had known for a few years now and had become a close friend to her as well with time, had told her when she had complained about Emmett's over-protectiveness one too many times.

Tonight would be different however, and nothing, least of all her dear brother, would come between her and what she had coveted now for years. She had planned everything to the last detail and had had no shame or remorse whatsoever enlisting Rosalie's help, making sure she would keep Emmett far away from here, just so she would actually have a night at the club without him hovering around and preventing her from getting what she wanted and desired most in the world. She had waited long enough for that and tonight, hopefully, would be the night all of her dreams came true.

Expelling a small trembling sigh despite how sure of herself she had seemed to be until that second, she took a seat at the far left end of the long bar counter and waited until one of the many bartenders that worked at the moment spotted her there.

Of course, she knew perfectly well which one she wished to notice her first, but he was serving customers at the opposite side she had deliberately chosen to sit at herself and she knew that she would have to be patient, at least for a while, until that happened.

She would need a moment to work up the nerve to do what she really wanted to do anyway, therefore that was probably not a bad thing right now.

Being spotted where she was was no problem either. The way all the guys seated by the counter turned to her with their tongues nearly rolling out of their mouths the second she planted herself at the bar, immediately alerted the bartender near her that something was going on and that a potential hottie had just walked in the place.

At first, Aidan didn't even recognize his boss's sister, not with the way she was dressed at least, but as she smiled at him as he approached her, he had to swallow back the pick-up line he had been all too ready to feed the beautiful creature that stood just in front of him.

"Bella?" he uttered quite incredulously, not quite believing that the woman sitting there could really be the same he had seen with Emmett so many times before.

He had always thought her beautiful, but tonight she had really gone all out and didn't look in any way like the sweet and innocent girl he was so used to.

"Hey, Aidan!" Bella answered back, pleased to see that her outfit was apparently having quite an effect on the handsome brown haired, blue-eyed bartender who normally wouldn't have looked at her twice.

"Looking good tonight…" Aidan said appreciatively, unable to stop his eyes from traveling down the length of her leather clad body, stopping probably more than necessary on the obvious cleavage he had barely noticed before this day, but could surely not miss now. "What are you doing here?"

"The same as everyone else here I guess…" Bella ignored his obvious approving look for now, in the end not so sure about how she felt about the quite disturbing way he was suddenly looking at her, and instead she tried to act as casually as she could. "Looking for some fun."

"Fun, huh?" Aidan repeated with an eyebrow raised, briefly wondering if there was more behind her words than what it looked like, but then he quickly pushed the thoughts that were crossing his mind far, far away, when he remembered _who_she was. Emmett would surely kill him, if he only suspected that he had just spent the last few seconds trying to picture what his sister could look like naked and what kind of 'fun' they could have together. "Why don't we start with something to drink? What would you like?" he amended quickly, trying to come back to a safer topic.

"A Cuba Libre, please." Bella demanded, already predicting of course what his reaction would be at hearing her ask for the coke, lime juice and more importantly _white rum _mixed drink, and she couldn't help rolling her eyes as Aidan not surprisingly frowned at her.

"Actually I was more thinking about offering you something non-alcoholic…" Aidan replied, sure that Emmett wouldn't appreciate either if he served alcohol to his sister.

"Ah, no, see… alcohol is exactly what I need and what I asked for…" Bella threw back with a huge smile, knowing that he wouldn't be able to refuse to serve her once she would have divulged her next piece of information. "Don't worry, I turned 21 just two days ago, you can serve me!"

"You did?" Aidan still said a little skeptically, as he prepared a martini for another customer, after the man had managed to pull his attention away from the gorgeous brunette the bartender was talking to.

Aidan wanted to believe her of course, but he was sure that there would be hell to pay if she was lying to him and he did give her an even just slightly alcoholic beverage. His bosses didn't joke about that, and they would even less if Bella was involved.

Usually, it was actually easy to separate those who could drink from those who weren't old enough to legally doing it yet, the first ones being stamped with a temporary ink tattoo of a full moon on one of their hands when they presented their ID at the front doors, while the seconds were marked with a smaller crescent moon.

Bella unfortunately didn't wear any of those, since they all knew her and she had probably not stopped longer at the doors than the two seconds it had most likely taken her to greet the bouncers at the front.

"Oh, so little faith… I'm crushed, really…" Bella shook her head and pouted, even if she had seen it coming, and almost at the same time, she reached for her purse, handing him her ID only a few seconds later.

She raised an eyebrow at him then, as if to say '_see, and now what are you going to say to that_?' and then put the document back in her tiny purse when he had indeed verified that her 21st birthday had been a couple of days earlier and that she could now legally drink with the best of them.

"Are you sure about this?" the bartender insisted one more time nonetheless, as he would clearly prefer if he wasn't the one having to contribute to his boss's sister getting drunk in his bar.

He could be wrong, but something told him that she would probably not stop at only one single glass.

"Absolutely!" Bella rejoined, before adding nonetheless, if only for his peace of mind, "Don't worry about me, I'm a big girl… I know what I am doing!"

Aidan wasn't so sure about that, truthfully, but who was he to tell her otherwise? Yet, as he served her her drink at last, he couldn't help thinking that maybe he should warn his other boss that Emmett's sister was there tonight, dressed to kill and apparently all too ready to have some fun, like she had said.

The second she had it in front of her, Bella took a long swig of her drink and Aidan couldn't help but cast a worried look to the other end of the bar, where Edward Cullen was mixing drinks as well, like he was a mere bartender there himself and didn't own more than half of the place.

From what other people had told him when he had started working here, Edward had inherited the 'Moonlight' from one of his uncles when this one had decided to retire a few years ago. After some thinking, Edward had realized that he would probably not be able to take care of the place on his own, not if he wanted to do with it what he had in mind, and so he had offered his best friend, Emmett Swan, a partnership. Emmett, who with some help from his parents, had bought him 49% of the affair as soon as he had been able to and was certainly working as hard as Edward to make it thrive now.

Since then, the 'Moonlight' had been renamed the 'New Moon, After Hours' after Emmett's parents' own restaurant, one of the most famous dining places in little Forks, and four years later no one could deny that it had become a very praised and successful nightclub instead of the simple bar it had once been, people often leaving the first place to go and finish their night at the second.

At twenty six years old now, Edward was well known and respected for his accomplishment, and that all around Forks, as was Emmett, and even when they didn't always agree on everything, they had remained best friends, the two guys even sharing the large duplex apartment they had entirely renovated before moving in and that was situated just above the club.

What Aidan also knew was that Edward himself considered Isabella Swan like his own sister, being at times and much to everyone's surprise, even more protective of her than even her real brother could be and he was sure that Edward wouldn't be more thrilled to see her sitting there than Emmett would have been himself, had he been the one working tonight.

Aidan was actually hoping he would be able to have a word with his boss before he spotted Bella on his own and they engaged in one of those battles of wills they were all too famous for.

As far as he remembered, every time Bella had set foot in the club, alone, Edward and Emmett had been on her case, reminding her that she shouldn't go out and come to such a place without Rosalie, or any other of her friends to accompany her. And every time she would remind them in turn that she wasn't really alone since they were there to play almost constant chaperones, even if it didn't seem to have much effect on the two men.

Unfortunately, before Aidan could move to Edward this time, he saw him giving his spot behind the bar to another bartender and moving away, probably to take care of some business in the front.

The place, like any other Friday night, was completely packed and Aidan knew well that on nights like this, Edward was almost constantly solicited for one thing or another, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't have a chance to talk to him later, or that he couldn't do something himself in the meantime. Until he could have that talk with Edward, he would make sure that Bella was alright at his end of the bar and that she didn't get herself into trouble.

Bella herself was hardly paying any attention to him now, she was too nervous trying to figure out how she could make this work without looking like a fool in the end. She had been so sure earlier that a few glasses of alcohol would be enough to help her calm some down, but now that she had almost emptied the first one, she wasn't feeling so confident anymore.

Seeing Edward Cullen, even if only for a few minutes and from afar, had made her heart triple hammer in her chest like it always did whenever she saw him or she just knew he was close by, and she could feel how clammy her hands had become all of a sudden.

She knew she was being ridiculous, after all, what was the worst that could happen to her if she tried what she had in mind and it didn't have the result she was hoping for? Edward would probably think that she was joking anyway, or he could take her seriously but tell her that as much as he cared for her -and she knew he did, of that at least there had never been the slightest doubt in her mind- he couldn't see her the way she wanted him to see her.

And what if that did happen and he rejected her, huh? She wouldn't die because of it, right? She would certainly _wish _she had, pretty much on the spot, but she would survive the shame and humiliation, wouldn't she?

So, no, there was no reason for her to be nervous, she thought as she finished her drink, no reason at all… but that didn't stop her from ordering another one almost right away. She could tell that Aidan didn't approve that much, but for now she chose to pay him no heed, ignoring the way he was looking at her as he did what she asked. After all, she knew he wouldn't understand her, even if she tried to explain to him what was really going on.

No one here would, because no one knew just how much she had been hiding and for how long.

* * *

><p>As he walked back from the stockroom with a case of bottles of whisky in his arms, Edward Cullen found himself smiling once more at how much he loved Friday nights. How much he actually loved this life.<p>

A few years ago, he had had no idea of what he was going to do with his life, where he wanted it to go, the law studies he had started actually leaving him quite unsatisfied with his choice of a career, the only time he actually found himself more or less happy and content with what he was doing, being when he was mixing drinks at his uncle's bar when the old man let him on the few weekends he was around.

Edward had taken it as a sign then so, when his uncle had offered him the Moonlight when he had decided that he was too old to handle the bar any longer, as much as he still loved the job himself, and Edward had started to dream again then. Dream of what could become of such a place and what he could do to make it even more thriving than it had already been when Adrian Cullen had been the sole owner of one of the only escape places Forks had held.

When he had been younger, Edward had always lamented the fact that while there were lots and lots of young people his age who were just asking to have some fun, there had barely been any choice of places for them to go to and do so in their hometown.

He and Emmett had alternatively spent their weekends between staying scooped up at his uncle's bar and playing pool almost all night, and driving to the nearest good club that was still a good fifty or so miles away in Port Angeles.

There was no need to say then that it hadn't taken Edward more than a few minutes to figure out what he wanted to do with his inheritance and it hadn't taken him long either to convince his uncle that it was not only the right, but the best thing to do as well.

Emmett had been as excited about the prospect as he had been himself once things had been decided, and so it had only been natural for Edward to choose him when he had thought of taking on a partner. He hadn't even needed to think about it twice, or even considered, even for just a mere second, taking anyone else, and he had surely never regretted his decision since.

They had done good work together, Edward thought once more as he took a look all around him and noticed that the club looked even more packed than it usually already did on Fridays. People were everywhere, enjoying a cool drink at one of the many tables and booths that ran all along the walls of the club, or having a blast on the dance floor, Eric, their weekend DJ definitely setting the floor on fire tonight. But then, when did he not?

The bar was crowded as well, but that still didn't stop Edward from spotting the hot brunette sitting at its left extremity when he came back to it from the other side he had exited it about half an hour ago, when he had been informed that there was some trouble at the front doors.

Having made a quick stop by the stockroom before coming back, so they wouldn't have to do it later on, Edward nearly regretted it when he almost dropped the expensive case he still had in hands the second his eyes settled on probably the finest piece of ass he had ever seen.

He wasn't usually one to have such crude thoughts, but damn if that weren't the only thing his mind could come up with at that instant.

The girl was dressed in a tight leather suit that not only didn't leave anything to the imagination, but molded her behind in a way that nearly made him swallow his tongue as he wondered if she was wearing anything at all under that thing, and Edward found his eyes traveling up her curves, hoping to see more of the girl's attributes.

She had her back to him yet, but the dark curtain of slightly curled hair that cascaded down the length of her back was enough for him to want to know even more about her. If her front was anything like what he had seen so far, he was sure he would find himself drooling all over her before he could even stop himself.

As embarrassing as _that _would clearly be, Edward almost welcomed the possibility, hoping that maybe a night of innocent flirting with such a creature would be enough to make him forget, even if just for a short while, about another brunette who, too often lately, had taken hold of his thoughts and consumed them.

Passing her without saying a word, his back to her for now, Edward deposited the many bottles of alcohol he carried behind the bar… and nearly had a heart attack when he eventually turned around and came face to face with the object of his obsession.

For months now, he had tried to get the beauty in front of him out of his mind, without much success unfortunately, and Edward was comprehensibly even more frustrated now to see that the first girl he had really noticed since he had realized that his feelings and thoughts were slowly but surely getting out of control, was actually the same and only one he hadn't been able to stop thinking about.

Talk about some fucking irony, huh?

Edward had actually known Isabella Swan since she was a day old baby, which probably explained why he had fought so hard when he had started realizing that he had been starting to develop some insane infatuation for his best friend's little sister, but seeing her now, he guessed that no honest red-blooded guy would be able to hold it against him.

She was truly a vision to behold, his eyes caressing the length of her body before he could convince himself he really shouldn't let himself do so and take such risk.

Those perfect doe eyes he had lost himself in one too many times lately were heavily made up tonight, her hair was shining even more than it normally did, looking even softer, only curled instead of the normal straight do she usually preferred, her lips were painted a dark raspberry color he would have most likely found a little too vulgar on anyone else, but it only actually made Edward want to kiss her even more than he had, every time he had seen her these last months, and that leather outfit… god, that outfit should really have been labeled illegal before it even left the factory, Edward thought as he followed the long zipper at her front. Zipper that disappeared from his view and under the counter and made his blood boil, as he wondered just where the hell it stopped exactly. All that combined and not so surprisingly so, Edward found himself in a trance, unable to take his eyes off of her.

Bella sucked in a breath herself as Edward kept looking at her, mouth hanging open, like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing, and if only to give herself some much needed composure before she said or did something really stupid, something that would completely ruin her chances before she had even tried anything tonight, she gulped half of her second Cuba Libre in barely one swig.

"Swan?" Edward blurted after a while and before he could stop himself, briefly wondering if he hadn't indeed been drooling. Now drooling over a girl he was sure he wouldn't see after tonight was one thing, but getting caught doing so over _this _particular girl was something else entirely. He just couldn't afford it. "Does your mother know you escaped dressed like that?" his next sentence was just as impulsive and he almost regretted it when he saw Bella's expressive eyes cloud over almost instantly.

"Cute, Cullen … real cute…" Bella retorted, trying to hide as best as she could how much it actually hurt to realize that once more, even dressed like this, he was still treating her like she was just some kid he knew, instead of the woman she had become long ago. But could she really have expected anything else, or did she think that he would just take one single look at her tonight and finally fall in love on the spot, huh? Of course not, she had known that she would have her work cut out for her and that she would have to work for it, she just needed to remind herself that things had not even really started yet, and that she just couldn't give up at the first hurdle. "My mother hasn't been helping me dress for a while now, in case you haven't noticed!" she continued, maybe a little more curtly than she had intended to, clearly disappointed, even if she knew she should have known better.

Edward noticed her reaction however, and it almost instantly made him feel bad, hurting her or making her feel uncomfortable being the very last thing he had meant to do.

It was not her fault after all he was so frustrated. And had actually been for a while now.

"Sorry… it's just… uh… that _thing_…" he stuttered uncharacteristically, unable to form a coherent sentence while he looked at what she was wearing. That outfit was simply mind-boggling and could make any guy lose his freaking mind. "Ah, never mind… anyway… what are you doing here?" he asked then, after having shaken his head long enough to clear his thoughts some.

As long as he managed to keep his eyes north of her cleavage, everything would be okay. Yeah, as long as he managed _that_, he would be alright, even if it was clearly easier said than done.

"What does it look like I'm doing here?" Bella replied with a shrug, as if to say it was quite evident and he shouldn't even have needed to ask.

"Did you come alone?" Edward inquired next when he realized that she was right. This was a club after all and he knew well what people came there for.

"Yep… alone and on my own… like the big girl I am." Bella answered, the pointed look she gave him then seeming to say that she was in no way ready to hear another one of his lectures and that it would be in his best interest to not say a word on the matter.

"Oh-kay… message received…" Edward threw back, holding his hands up in surrender, the last thing he wanted being to pick up a fight with her now.

With the way he felt at that second, chances were too great anyway that he would just throw her over the counter if she argued too much with him, and he would settle their disagreement and shut her up the only way that seemed right: by fucking her senseless just where they were. Angry sex had never looked so tempting or appealing, but that… that was really not something he should give too much thought right now. If any at all.

Besides, as long as she stayed at the bar anyway, at least he could keep an eye on her, but he could only do that if he made sure he didn't make her run away from him and where she was sitting.

Bella didn't even answer him this time, occupying herself with picking at the napkin Aidan had given her with her first drink, but she couldn't help following Edward with her eyes and frowning slightly when Aidan stopped him from going back to where he had been when she had first arrived.

As she observed them, she couldn't help but notice how Aidan's eyes kept coming back to settle on her while he talked to Edward and she braced herself for what she knew his reaction would be, once Aidan would have told him just what exactly she was drinking instead of the simple and usual coke he had most likely thought she had been having.

And she had no doubt _that _was exactly what Aidan was telling him about, they were all so sure she needed protection or whatever, and needed to be monitored like a child whenever she came here. It was totally ridiculous as far as she was concerned, and what was more, it was seriously starting to get on her nerves.

When Aidan and Edward were done talking, she saw the latter move a few more feet away to go and talk to another bartender, but Bella was really no more surprised than that to see him come back her way the second he was apparently done giving Andy, or whatever his name was, some directives.

Edward smiled at her as he approached, but Bella knew from experience that she really shouldn't let herself be fooled by the sweet gesture. She was proven right not a second later, when Edward took her glass out of her hand when she was bringing it back to her lips again, and polished its content before she could utter a word of protest, his eyes boring into her as he drank.

" 'Una mentirita', huh?" Edward questioned as he licked his lips and put the empty glass back down in front of her.

"What?" Bella replied, a little distracted by the glimpse of his tongue she had just gotten. And not even a second did she even think about scolding him for having finished her drink.

" 'Una mentirita'… 'a small lie'… that's how some people call a Cuba Libre, because they think Cuba was never really free anyway…" Edward explained, as he prepared a drink for the client sitting only two bar stools from her, referring to the meaning of Cuba Libre. 'Free Cuba'. "Didn't know you liked them…"

"Oh, right…" Bella stuttered, a little confused with his behavior and the fact that he didn't even look mad, like she had been so sure he would be.

Something was definitely not right with that picture.

"You sure didn't waste any time…" he continued with the same tone, and though Bella caught the clear meaning behind the words, she didn't know what to make of the too gentle way they were delivered.

"Edward, god… don't start…" Bella still growled before she could stop herself, seeing where this was going, even if she had believed just for a few seconds that she could be off the hook for once.

She wanted to tell him that she was doing nothing wrong, and nothing they hadn't all done before, whether it were him, Emmett or any of her older friends, but she didn't even have time to say as much that Edward was addressing her again.

"I'm just saying… that and that I don't think Emmett would approve…" Edward replied, the way he said so leaving the '_and_ I_ don't either_' part unsaid, but still quite clear for Bella to hear.

"Emmett's my brother, Edward… not my father…" Bella reminded him, pushing her glass almost defiantly towards him. "… and I'm not only paying for this, but old enough to drink now, too… so hit me again… that's what _you_ are paid for, right?" she pursued, daring him to refuse her what she was asking for, and although they both knew that Edward wasn't really _paid _to serve people here, but only did so still because that was how he had started and he simply still loved being behind the bar, Edward didn't even bother contradicting her.

Instead he looked at her without saying a word for a long moment. So long in fact that it had Bella all but squirming on her seat from the intensity of his gaze.

Bella was actually considering asking him what was wrong with him, when he suddenly seemed to snap out of it and with a shrug, reached for the rum bottle under the bar with one hand, and her empty glass with the other, handing it back to her once he was done adding the rest of the ingredients.

"It's your ass, Swan!" he told her at last, clearly insinuating that Emmett would certainly not be happy with this if he heard about it, but that she would be the one having to deal with him then.

She was right anyway. His job was to make sure that every customer was satisfied with the service they provided, and no matter what he felt for her, tonight she was a customer like just any other. He had already come to that conclusion earlier when Aidan had first informed him that Bella had been heading more and more quickly towards her third drink of the night and he had realized that he would have no valid reason to not serve her, if she asked him to.

As she had said, she was old enough to have alcohol now and he had definitely not enough influence on her to stop her from doing so, if that was what she wanted. Besides, it was probably better she did this here, under his watch, if she had set her mind on getting drunk for the first time in her life now that she could, than somewhere else where anything could happen to her.

Helping her not get there too fast, was also his job however, and that was why he had made sure Aidan knew not to pour more rum in her drinks than what was necessary for her to just feel the taste if he served her again, and why he had just done so himself, without her being any the wiser.

Edward was in fact quite satisfied with what he had come up with to slow her some down, but he only realized that that would probably be the least of his worries for the night when he heard the comment coming from the man who took the seat just next to Bella, seat that had barely been vacated a few seconds.

"And what a nice ass it is!" the guy, a thirty something man, shamelessly said, oblivious to the daggers the bartender in front of him was throwing at him.

Bella herself was too stunned at the moment to even formulate an answer and let the guy know how inappropriate she thought his comment was, and she didn't even have the opportunity to answer him a few seconds later either, when the stranger asked her if he could buy her another drink and Edward was the one to do so for her.

"She hasn't finished this one yet!" Edward remarked almost in a growl, looking at the other man like he was only seconds away from actually hurting him.

"Dude, mind your own business, I wasn't talking to you!" the other man threw back, barely giving Edward a second glance, too busy he was undressing Bella with his eyes, which of course only infuriated Edward even more.

"She _is_ my business, _dude_!" Edward groaned through clenched teeth, ready to beat that idiot to a pulp, if he didn't scurry away and fast.

He knew those guys, and though he had barely done anything yet beside addressing Bella, Edward knew his kind and what exactly they were looking for all too well, to not be ready to blow a fuse. That guy would be dead before he could lay a finger on Bella.

"What are you? Her father?" the other guy growled as well now, making Bella look from one man to the other, her mouth hanging open, as they watched each other like they were ready to kill each other, if someone didn't intervene and stopped them.

Edward actually looked like he was ready to jump over the counter and smash the other man's face and Bella, despite what her head was telling her, and how inappropriate she knew it was to have such thoughts in such a moment, couldn't help being a little bit thrilled at his reaction, hoping that he was reacting in such a way because he was, even if just slightly, jealous.

"Her father would definitely not like what's going on here… but _I _will be the one kicking your ass if you don't get out of here… now…" Edward threatened him, only lamenting that their little scene was attracting one too many people's attention.

He absolutely _hated _to have to create such scene in fact, but there was no way he was letting this go.

"Edward, it's okay…" Bella barely breathed out, the last thing she actually wanted being for Edward to get into a brawl because of her, as sweet as she actually thought it was that he was ready to defend and protect her for once.

"See, you heard the lady… it's okay… so now go back to handling your bar, and let me handle the girl…" the stranger returned with a triumphant smile, but that smile quickly slipped off his face when Edward grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and brought his face inches from his.

"You get out of my club _now_, or you will be missing a few body parts once I'm done with you!" Edward promised in a hiss, not the least intimidated by the way the other guy was trying to look at him. "Now get lost, loser!"

Said _loser _was actually ready to answer him and give him a piece of his own mind, but he was prevented from doing so when a pat on his shoulder made him turn around and come face to face with two of the club bouncers someone had obviously called. Bouncers who didn't think twice about escorting him on his way out, even despite his protest that he had done nothing wrong and that it was that stupid bartender who had started it all, messing with him and the hot little number he had tried to pick up and take back home.

He actually only regretted his words and his attitude when he was informed that that _stupid bartender_ was actually the club's owner, fact that had apparently not registered with him even when Edward had told him so, and that _he_ should have really known better than to try anything with _that _particular girl, considering who she was to their boss. All he had accomplished with that was making sure that they would never let him set foot in the club ever again after that.

The second the troublesome drinker was out of the way, Bella looked back at Edward and wasn't more surprised than that to see him still seething. She watched as he mixed a drink for himself, then barely stopped to breathe before finishing it, and she couldn't help biting her lip in worry.

Apparently coming dressed like that had not been such a good idea after all, if that was the kind of weirdoes she was going to attract all night. She wasn't even sure it had had any effect on the one man it had been meant to attract in the first place, Edward having not made any comment, or shown any particular reaction beside that fleeting moment he had seemed too stunned to speak when he had first seen her, and that first sentence he had thrown at her about what her mother would probably think of her dressed like that.

Fortunately, her mother had no idea she had bought such an outfit, or she would certainly have locked her up in her room before she could have had any chance to escape to Rosalie's and change there. But that was really beside the point right now.

"Sorry, Edward … I didn't mean…" Bella started to apologize, but Edward didn't even give her the opportunity to finish her sentence and let him know that she had never meant to get him into any trouble.

"Whatever…" he cut her off, making Bella wonder who he was really mad at: that guy for being another one of those pigs who unfortunately were legions around Forks and seemed to naturally congregate at the club on weekends, or her for just having been there and being the cause of this. "Just be careful who you talk to while you are here!" he added as what seemed to be an afterthought, and then he moved away, making his way back to where he had previously been, before Bella could even utter another word, or thank him for having come to her rescue, even if she hadn't asked him to.

On his way, he just stopped to have a few words with Aidan once more, and Bella understood that he was probably asking him to keep a close eye on her. She wanted to scream at him for that, but after what had just happened, she guessed that she was lucky he wasn't forcing her out and sending her back home, and therefore, for once she held her tongue, knowing that she was in no position to argue.

Edward was probably disgusted with her now anyway, and that surely wouldn't help her accomplish what she had set her mind on.

Seducing Edward Cullen tonight could definitely prove harder than what she had clearly already predicted.

The truth however, couldn't be further from that. Edward wasn't disgusted with her, he was too busy being disgusted with himself. The way he had reacted just then had, to some extent, even scared himself, if it hadn't completely scared that other guy and Edward had known that he couldn't stay near Bella for now, not if he didn't want to risk doing or saying something he would surely regret later on.

Edward had never been what you could call a possessive man, and if he had had several more or less serious relationships in his life, he couldn't remember having ever been so jealous as he had felt minutes ago, when that guy had been all but drooling into Bella's displayed cleavage.

The urge to punch his face and order him to stay away from what was his had been nearly overwhelming and it had only been the knowledge that he had no rights to Bella, that had stopped him from staking such claim.

She wasn't his, she never was and she would never be. She _couldn't _be, for so many reasons, he just had to get that through his thick head once and for all, and everything would go back to normal. Back to how things were, before all those crazy thoughts of making her his forever had started to invade his mind.

And in the meantime, or at least until he calmed some down, he would just have to stay away from her. It was the only thing he could think of that would stop him from throwing her over his shoulder and taking her back up to his room, where he would lock her up and keep her prisoner, until she succumbed to him and he made sure she was as crazy about him as it unfortunately seemed more and more, he was of her.

~ o * o ~

**TBC… **

**So? :? Would you read more? Let me know… **


	2. Sometimes one mere kiss

**Author**: **Rebecca. **

**Title**: **Blame it on the Moon. **

**Category**: AU. All human. Edward and Bella.

**Rating**: **M**

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own anything so don't sue if you're not happy with what I wrote, you wouldn't be gaining anything!

**AN: ****Okay, even if no one seems to be reading, here is the next part… thanks so much Kgunter34 and Emersonread for your reviews! I hope you'll enjoy this part as well! **

**Chapter One****: **_**Sometimes one mere kiss, will still take you to bliss**_.

~ 0 * 0 ~

**B**ella Swan spent the next hour or so nursing drinks and keeping observing the man she had known her whole life, and the man she had been in love with for a good half of it.

Despite the fact that she could sense how uncomfortable it was making Aidan to have to keep serving her, he hadn't said a word about it and hadn't stopped her from getting exactly what she had wanted, and only for that, she guessed she could be grateful to him.

Many drinks later, Bella was feeling more than only the slight buzz she had been feeling in the beginning, but strangely, she felt she was suddenly invincible and ready to conquer the world. Or maybe the world would prove to be too big of a challenge just yet, but she felt definitely ready to take on the hot bartender she hadn't been able to take her eyes off of and making him come down to her feet this time, the false, alcohol-induced confidence she had built up since he had left, making her believe she could do anything for once.

He hadn't come back to see her since he had left her sitting there on her own, but Bella had been too content drinking her fill of him from just where she was to mind that much, for once not even bothering to hide how she really felt.

Her eyes had been quite shamelessly roaming over his body for the last few minutes, not even minding that with the way she kept looking at him, he was either going to catch on fire just before her eyes, or actually more simply, catch her in the act.

She couldn't care for now, the sight of him working there, clad in those tight low-ridding jeans and that white shirt that molded every inch of his torso and made her pulse race every time he moved to serve customers, or simply reached for the bottles he needed, being enough to make her ignore anything else.

The only thing she minded in fact, was the growing dampness that was settling between her thighs the longer she stared at him, and how uncomfortable it was slowly making her to be in such a state and keep sitting just there, in that leather suit that was making her feel way hotter than she was sure was normal.

Rosalie had actually warned her about that side effect, but surely she hadn't meant that she would be ready to strip of the little clothes she had on -and, yes, many were probably wondering, but that suit, was the _only _thing she was wearing tonight- and wish for the night air to cool off her skin before it was even over.

Her body temperature only seemed to go still another few degrees up when all of a sudden Edward turned to her and his smoldering gaze instantly locked with hers, like he had been completely aware of her presence there all along and had known where exactly he would find her.

Aware was still a mild way to put it, however. Edward couldn't have ignored she was there even if he had been paid for it, every minute he had spent away from her, being a minute he had had to fight with himself to not go running back to her like a teenager in heat.

Knowing that she stood there, only mere feet away, had made him yearn to be with her, or as close to her as he could be, but Edward had refused to give in, even long after he had calmed down enough to be coherent again and be sure he would be able to hold a normal conversation with her.

The last few minutes had proven to be the hardest however, and Edward was ready to give himself a small respite, judging that he had probably been as strong as he humanly could for now, when someone asked him for another drink and momentarily stopped him for going back to where he really wanted to be, and that no matter how much his head could rebel against what his heart and body could ask for.

From her side of the bar, Bella took in the scene and she couldn't help but feel her heart tighten in her chest when she recognized the slender brunette who was now talking and laughing with Edward.

Now, women had been flirting almost non-stop with Edward since she had gotten there and he had been his usual charming-self with almost all of them, so that wasn't really anything new. It was, according to Rosalie, the 'Cocktail' effect, or the 'Tom Cruise' effect as she liked to call it as well, when people didn't always get her reference to the famous 88' movie.

Many women had the hots for the bartenders and spent more time drooling over them than really enjoying the club scene, and if that bartender was as freaking hot as Edward, Bella could definitely understand the attraction. Maybe better than anyone else even, but she had really thought that Edward had gotten rid of that particular 'weight' months ago. Not that she would have ever asked him if it was true or not, at least not before tonight, but Rosalie had been sure he wasn't seeing Jessica Whatever-her-surname-could-be any longer and Bella, more than anything else in the world, had wanted to believe it.

Not surprisingly so, Bella was now caught between the sudden urge she felt to close her eyes so she wouldn't have to see more than her heart could most likely take, and the one just as strong to throw up all the drinks she had gulped down since the beginning of the night.

Before she could stop herself, tears filled her eyes when she saw Edward smile at something Jessica said to him, and then watched her cup the side of his face and plant a kiss on his cheek, lingering there just way longer, at least in Bella's opinion, than it would have been decent to.

She knew she was being ridiculous, after all, one simple kiss didn't have to mean anything, but that didn't stop her from feeling like her heart was breaking in two at the sight. Whatever was really between them, Jessica had something with Edward, Bella feared she would never be able to claim herself, no matter how much she could actually want to.

Seeing Edward coming her way almost as soon as he seemed to be done, at least for now, with Jessica, Bella did her best to school her features and appear as unaffected as she could.

She wasn't sure she succeeded that much however, when Edward stopped just in front of her and looked at her a few seconds longer than what should have really been necessary, one of his eyebrows raising as in question.

Bella ignored it though, looking back at him and daring him to say anything.

"How are you doing, Swan?" Edward asked gently, stunning her into momentary silence when one of his thumbs reached out to her and brushed away the single tear that had still managed to escape her eyes despite her efforts.

He didn't comment on it however, and Bella could only hope that he didn't suspect the reason for her tears, but thought it was only due to the amount of alcohol she had already consumed. After all, many around her were all bleary-eyed and looked like they were about to cry, too, after one too many drinks.

"I guess not as fine as you…" she said all too casually to be honest and Edward couldn't help frowning at her words.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he wondered aloud, taking from Aidan and finishing the drink the other bartender had been preparing.

"You have…" Bella pointed to his cheek and then rolled her eyes, when it was obvious he still didn't see where she was going with that. "Lipstick… you have lipstick on your cheek… and honestly, that color?… it doesn't do anything for you." she elaborated, crunching up her nose at the almost crimson red mark Jessica had left on him.

Who wore such a horrible color anyway?

"Oh…" Edward just uttered, rubbing at where she had pointed out to make the mark disappear.

"Yeah, _oh_…" Bella repeated, suddenly looking down into her drink, like it was the most interesting thing in the world, and avoiding Edward's gaze at all cost. She knew she wouldn't be able to ask what she wanted if she had to look at him just now. "I… I-I thought you weren't seeing Jessica anymore?" Bella forced herself to blurt out before she had time to think about it twice and convince herself that she really didn't want to know the answer to that question. Not if it were to hear him say that he indeed was still with that girl, or they had indeed broken up before, but had now just decided to give it another go.

"I'm not…" Edward replied almost immediately, only to have to insist some more when Bella turned doubtful eyes up to him. "Not like that, I mean… we're friends…" he explained, wondering briefly if he had just imagined the small sigh of relief he was sure he had just heard escaping her lips.

She had no reason to feel relieved about the news, had she?

"Friends, huh?" Bella repeated nonetheless, looking him straight in the eyes now, knowing that she would see the truth in them and would have no more doubts if she just looked at him.

She knew he wouldn't lie to her anyway, he never had before, and he would surely not on such a simple thing. Besides, he had never hidden his relation with Jessica before, so he had no reason to start now, if they were actually still together.

"Yep…" Edward just said, not wanting to go into more detail about his relationship with Jessica.

There wasn't much to say anyway, truthfully, they had not even really been together in reality -at least not like Bella probably thought they had- only having gone out a few times before realizing that though they had a lot in common, they were better off as friends.

Since then they had still enjoyed a few moments together, going out to dinner once in a while to catch up with what was going on in their respective lives, but that had been the extent of it. Edward knew she was seeing someone more or less seriously now anyway, but what was more, he wasn't interested in her that way either, no matter how attractive he indeed still thought she was.

"Okay…" Bella just whispered then, and this time, Edward knew he wasn't imagining the small smile that graced her lips, even if she lowered her head again and obviously tried to hide it.

Feeling strangely pleased with that, Edward didn't even think about it before re-serving Bella when she asked him for another glass, preparing one for him as well once he was done with hers.

Watching her as he took a gulp of his own, he was surprised nonetheless to see Bella down more than half of hers almost at the same time.

"So… any particular reason you're trying to drink us out of business tonight, or are you just trying to make up for what you consider lost time…" he asked her teasingly before he could stop himself, his question definitely catching Bella's attention again. "Because I have to say… you just turned twenty-one... I can guarantee you that you still have a few good years to know exactly how it feels to be really hung-over in the morning… no need for you to rush it…" he continued, watching her as she played with the straw he had added to her last drink, hoping that it would maybe help her drink slower and stop it from going directly to her head now.

Even if she had probably not noticed, he had been keeping an eye on her earlier and he knew just how much she had drunk already. The weird thing was that she had not been sick yet, or simply decided to throw in the towel and gotten back home.

"I'm… uh… on a mission!" Bella revealed all too casually, the alcohol clearly loosening her tongue and making her say so before she could even realize what she was doing and reconsider it.

"You are?" Edward demanded curiously, thinking that maybe having her drink so much could prove somewhat useful and interesting in the end.

She seemed way more eager to share all her thoughts with him than she normally would and as wrong as he knew it was, part of him couldn't help but want to take advantage of that.

"Hmm-uh…" Bella all but moaned out as she pulled her straw out of the colored liquid in front of her and licked it clean, apparently not aware of what effect such simple gesture could have on the man in front of her.

"And what _mission _would that be?" Edward inquired after having swallowed as much of his drink as he could himself, the way he felt his groin tighten at the mere sight of her licking that straw being almost embarrassing, considering he was far from being a virgin and was definitely too old to still react in such a way.

God, was it suddenly hot in there, or what?

"I'm losing my virginity tonight!" Bella announced for everyone within earshot to hear, like that was the most natural, or normal thing to say in such a moment.

Only when she saw Edward spit his drink on the bar in front of her and she noticed the dozen of interested eyes that had suddenly turned to her, did she question what she had just said.

What? Why were they all looking at her like that? Had they never seen a virgin before? She wasn't the only remaining one in Forks, was she?

No, of course not, there was still 'Mary, the Prude' as everyone called Reverend Anderson's daughter. That one was certainly still a virgin. And there was that old miss down Main Street… what was her name again?... Annie _Something_… who was seventy years old and for the better of everyone's knowledge had never known the touch of a man in her whole life, and probably never would. She would certainly die an old maid now. God, seriously, what was her name? Bella wondered, the rum having most likely really kicked in at last, because she just couldn't remember, when she had known the woman her whole life.

She was ready to ask Edward if _he_remembered, when she saw him wipe the mess he had made on the counter in front of her, while telling one of the guys near her to mind his own business and stop looking at her like that.

Apparently she had to have missed part of the conversation when she was mulling over Old Annie's name because she didn't understand everything of what they were arguing about.

"Swan, I don't think you want to say something like that in front of so many horny males!" Edward chuckled awkwardly as he addressed her again, hoping with all his might that she had only been joking, or only actually been trying to get a rise out of him, for whatever reason that could be.

"Why not? It's true!" Bella just shrugged like it was no big deal -that was definitely what she had come to offer to Edward after all, even if she probably should have said so only to him and not to half of the bar- and Edward found himself glaring once more at all the guys around, threatening to kick them all out if he heard only one more of them offering Bella to help her with that.

God, this girl was going to get him killed tonight!

His threat however, seemed to be enough for now and have at least some effect on the guys, since most of them shut up then, but that didn't stop Edward from trying to hide Bella from their lust-filled gazes and plant himself in front of her to shield her, glad to see that he could surprisingly easily do so, since she had perched herself on one of the last bar stools, just where the counter turned and ended.

Only the guy directly next to her could still clearly see and hear them now, but Edward made sure he wouldn't say another word, the way he glowered at him scaring him enough for him to know he better forget all about the girl sitting near him.

She hadn't paid him much attention before anyway, no matter how hard he had tried to get her to notice him, apparently more interested she was in drinking herself into a stupor than having any real conversation with any of the guys around.

Too bad, he would surely not have minded being the one helping her with her little 'problem'. But then which guy in his right mind here wouldn't, huh? The girl was seriously hot, and if she was asking for it, she should certainly not worry about getting it. That bartender, as protective as he could act, sure looked like he would be ready to deliver himself.

"I-I…" Edward started quite uncomfortably and barely loud enough for Bella to hear him. "I didn't even know you were still… you know…" he trailed off, unable to say the words, and even less able to analyze how he really felt about that revelation for now, if it were indeed true of course. "I thought James Laurent had… _taken care _of that a long time ago." He went on, remembering all too well when that rumor had started to fly all around Forks High School and how it had reached his own ears, even if he had long not been attending that school anymore.

He had not let himself think too much about it at the time, but yes, he could admit that it _had _felt weird, thinking that a seventeen years old Bella could have lost her virginity to such an idiot. James Laurent was closer to his age than Bella's and definitely not Edward's favorite person in the world, and believing that he had been Bella's first had surely not helped Edward have a better opinion of him or change his mind on him.

"_Please_, like I would give that loser the time of day!" Bella retorted with a snort, resting her chin in the palm of her hand and sighing softly afterwards, apparently more enthralled by the way Edward was looking at her all of a sudden, than by the topic of conversation.

"So, you and James… you never…" Edward insisted some more, wanting suddenly to know for sure, yet forcing thoughts of being actually Bella's first and the one to introduce her to the pleasures two people could bring to each other if no one had before, as far away from his mind as he could.

"Nope! Or maybe only in his dreams!" Bella giggled a little drunkenly, like she would find it funny to know that James could have been dreaming of her, without actually having her.

Edward however, didn't seem to see the humor, or find it _that_funny himself, after all for having dreamt of her one too many times himself in the past, he knew what an uncomfortable state you could wake up in, and he wasn't sure he could even wish that to his worst enemy.

"Then why didn't you ever say anything to deny it?" Edward queried curiously still.

After all, part of the reason they had all assumed it was true when they had first heard about it, had been because Bella had refused to talk about it.

"What good would _that _have done? No one would have believed me anyway!" Bella shrugged once more, remembering all too well how she had tried in the beginning, but had quickly understood that it would be no use and she would only be wasting her time.

James had always had the reputation of being able to bed any girl he set his eyes on, and she had probably been considered too shy and prude herself to be able to resist him better and longer than any other girl before her had.

It didn't matter anyway, as long as _she_had known the truth, and the only one she would have wanted to tell she had been saving herself for him and no one else, had not seemed to care then, so what would have been the point? Bella had even wanted to believe that if Edward thought that she had some experience, he would see her differently, but he had never done a thing to approach her even after that then, so she had let it go for a while, or at least until now.

She didn't mind telling him the truth now, after all, if she managed to end up where she wanted to end up tonight, he would have probably realized it on his own anyway.

"You do know that Emmett kicked his ass because _he_ was truly convinced it _was _true? He even sent the guy to the ER!" Edward reminded her, even if truthfully, he had thought James deserved it as well at the time, if only for being the one proudly boasting over the fact that he had deflowered the Swan girl and being the one to start that rumor in the first place.

Edward would have probably even been the one to kick his ass, if only for damaging Bella's reputation, if Emmett hadn't beaten him to that.

"And I think that was punishment enough for lying, don't you think?" Bella demanded with a small smile, knowing that as far as she was concerned, it _had_definitely been.

James had never come anywhere near her after that, and no one had ever dared say one misplaced word about her after they had seen what Emmett had done to him.

Of course, Emmett had been furious with her for a while as well, lecturing her every chance he got about how stupid he thought she had been to let someone like James get into her pants, but after many yelling battles where, instead of simply telling him the truth, Bella reminded him that she was old enough to make her own decision and her own mistakes, he had eventually calmed down and stopped bringing it up.

Edward eventually nodded at that, thinking that she was probably right, and left her alone a few minutes while he attended to a few customers, but he was by her side again the second he was done, asking almost too casually, " So, this whole '_I'm losing… _it_, tonight_'… uh…" he intoned, barely able to stop himself from chocking on the words. "Do you have anyone in mind, or are you just going to let one of those horny dogs get lucky tonight?" he finished, hoping she wouldn't see through his supposedly calm and indifferent façade.

Inwardly he was all but ready to explode, swearing to himself that he would just drag her out of there the second she opened her mouth if she told him something like she didn't care who did it as long as it was done.

Bella seemed ready for a lot of firsts apparently, now that she had turned twenty-one, and if he had no right whatsoever to rule her life, or stop her from doing what she wanted, he would be damned if he let her make such a monumental mistake as the one he was sure was coming, without saying a thing.

If he had to, he would even call Emmett and tell him what his dear little sister was planning, so he could come and get her, and that even if it made her hate him afterwards.

And no, it had nothing to do with the fact that he was jealous, or that the mere thought of any guy with his hands on Bella was literally driving him insane, he was just trying to protect her. That was all.

"I do… have someone in mind, I mean… I'm just trying to work up the nerve to approach him about it…" Bella confessed, watching his reaction from under thick eyelashes, hoping he would get her meaning without her having actually to come out and say the words aloud.

Wouldn't it be so much easier if it could happen like that and be that simple?

"Hence the drinking!" Edward deduced, trying to fight off the jealousy that was creeping through his every bone once more.

He couldn't help but wonder who could be the guy who could put such a look on Bella's face, even if she probably didn't realize herself the way it had almost lit up just for a second there, when she had talked about her mysterious man, or if he only knew just how lucky he was.

Bastard.

"Hence the drinking… aaand… I'm not quite there yet… so keep them coming…" Bella confirmed quite loudly as she pushed her drink to him but then, she couldn't help but pout when Edward just looked at it without doing a thing.

"Well, maybe you should actually slow down, or by the time he gets here, you won't remember your name, much less be in any state to… you know…" Edward advised, before stuttering awkwardly again before he could finish his sentence.

"Lose my _virginity_?" Bella did it for him, once more a little too loudly for Edward's liking, which caused him to wince perceptibly and Bella to giggle herself in reaction. "Why is it so hard for you to say the words?" she questioned him with a small smile, finding it actually really funny that a man like Edward could be unable to say such a simple, almost insignificant word as 'VIR-GI-NI-TY'.

"It's not hard…" Edward said, or at least it wasn't hard like she could think it was. Hard was how he was clearly feeling now, or the longer he looked at her and thought about her… becoming a woman… preferably with his help. "It's just _weird_, I guess… I mean, I've known you since you were a baby, and now…" he continued and only realized that wasn't something he should have brought up now when Bella glared at him and straightened up in her seat the second the words were out.

"Well, I'm no baby anymore… I'm a woman now…" Bella reminded him quite proudly, chest out and all, but instead of being impressed as Edward thought was her aim, he found himself smiling softly at how cute he thought she looked, sitting there, looking all indignant, even if she could barely stand on her stool.

Only for that, Edward decided to give her a little something.

"Oh, yes, you're a woman alright!" he whispered for her ears only, elbows on the counter now, as at the same time he made a show of letting his eyes slide appreciatively down her curves, his tongue coming out to lick his lips as he stopped his hungry gaze on her perfect breasts.

"I am!" Bella insisted with a decisive nod, trying her best to stop herself from moaning aloud when she saw exactly where he was looking, but she definitely couldn't stop her blood from boiling in her veins at the sight of Edward leaning so casually against the counter, his face only mere inches from hers now.

"Mmm-uh…" Edward smiled that sexy smile of his and Bella's good resolutions nearly went right out of the window, that being almost enough to make her melt on the spot.

"Are you making fun of me?" she couldn't help pouting and asking nonetheless, sure that Edward was trying to play some trick on her, or whatever, otherwise she couldn't explain what seemed to be happening between them all of a sudden.

"I wouldn't dare!" Edward chuckled, but the gleam in his eyes seemed to say otherwise and only made Bella pout harder.

"Well, you shouldn't!... I still haven't forgotten that you didn't get me a birthday present this year… so you better not push your luck, a girl can only be so forgiving!" Bella reminded him and warned him, unable to quite completely hide how much that had actually stung, even despite her best efforts.

Usually, he always had something for her, how insignificant that could be, but this year she had only gotten a happy birthday wish and a kiss on the cheek, and as important as that had already been, it still had not been enough to erase the pain and disappointment she had felt when she had understood that that was apparently all she would be getting.

What she didn't know was that that had actually been voluntary on Edward's part and that he and Emmett would be giving her her real present tomorrow, during the surprise party her parents were throwing her for her 21st birthday.

"Who said I didn't?" Edward challenged with an eyebrow raised and a little smirk that had Bella's heart skipping a few beats.

"Did you?" she whispered softly, head cocked to the side, her eyes boring into his.

"Maybe." Edward breathed back, suddenly itching to push away that strand of hair that had fallen before her eyes and see if it were really still as soft as he remembered it to be.

"You don't even know what I want!" Bella told him then, sure that whatever he could have come up with, if he had indeed bought her something, it certainly couldn't be what she _really _wished for, no matter the fact that she knew she would like it anyway, simply because it would be coming from him.

"Well, what do you want?" Edward demanded to know, even if he already did. After all, she had only been asking for the same thing since she had turned eighteen. And she was surely in for a big surprise tomorrow.

"Right now?" Bella replied almost breathlessly, wondering if she could really do what her head was telling her she should do.

"Huh-uh…beside more alcohol, of course…" Edward said, although he nearly bit his tongue when he realized that Bella had apparently momentarily forgotten all about drinking and he was only reminding her of that.

Fortunately, she didn't seem to catch on his slip for now, too busy she apparently seemed to be, thinking about what she could ask him.

If only he knew that she had known all along what that would be and was only _pretending_to have to make up her mind.

"A kiss…" she whispered at last, knowing that there was no reason to prolong this.

She had nothing to lose anyway, and if he did reject her, she would just have to act like she was definitely too drunk to really know what she was doing or saying, or simply tell him that she was kidding.

"W-What?" Edward stammered in answer, that being probably the last thing he could have thought she would come up with, no matter the fact that the thought of actually doing so and kissing her had really not been too far from his own mind.

"You heard me… I-I want a kiss…" Bella reiterated before she could chicken out, thinking that it was now or never. "You know, to… wish me luck for later…" she justified as an afterthought, thinking that maybe Edward needed more to stop hesitating. Not that that was the most clever excuse she could have come up with, clearly.

"For later, huh?" Edward repeated with another small smile. "And what would your lucky guy think if he saw me kissing you just before you went and offered yourself to him?" he taunted before he could stop himself, but at least he was proud of himself when he managed to say that whole sentence without cringing at the thought this time.

He couldn't care less if he did see them. _Let_him see them, and maybe then he wouldn't even think about coming anywhere near Bella, and Edward wouldn't have to threaten his very life, if he just touched her.

"Nothing…" Bella affirmed and then rushed the rest out when she saw that Edward was looking at her like he was telling her she should really try to find something better than that. "He's not here yet anyway… and what he doesn't know can't hurt him, right?" Bella lied and added a little mischievously, and she almost smiled in triumph when she saw Edward staring at her, his mouth opening and closing for a few seconds, the sure sign that he had no good retort to offer to that.

Yes, she could have almost smiled, if it hadn't been for Edward's next sentence.

"You don't really want me to kiss you, Swan!" his voice was hoarse as he spoke now and had Bella trembling from head to toes.

His words seemed to tell her that she had no idea, or wasn't anywhere prepared for the kind of repercussion even just a simple innocent kiss could have, but his eyes… god, his eyes. The way he was looking at her suddenly, like she was the only thing he was seeing now was enough for her to forget about anything else as well, and not even his slightly negative words could stop her from going further now.

There was something in his gaze and unless it was indeed the heavy dose of alcohol she had consumed tonight that was making her imagining it, it definitely didn't match what had just passed his lips.

"Why not?" Bella said almost just as breathlessly, if not more, before she added more jokingly, "Everyone wants a shot at Edward Cullen, right? Or did you really think this place was packed every night because of my brother's good manners?"

Her attempt at humor had the anticipated effect, Edward's throaty laugh filling the air the second he heard her, but when he was ready to leave her again after that, somehow now convinced that she had only been playing him, she stopped him from doing so, grabbing him by the shirt and bringing him even closer to her than he had already been seconds ago, the counter being actually the only thing stopping their bodies from ending plastered to each other.

"Don't you want to kiss me, Edward?" Bella breathed out, mere inches from his lips and way more seriously, Edward's eyes all too naturally drifting to her own. "Just… one… kiss…" she then whispered oh, so close to him, Edward could feel her breath stirring against his face and he had to resist the urge he felt to tell her exactly just how many times he had actually imagined himself doing so in the last few years.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Squirt!" he all but groaned out instead, finally smoothing that lock of hair behind her ear, his fingers trailing down the side of her face once he was done.

"Don't call me…" Bella started, realizing how hard it suddenly was to even just form a simple sentence with him this close to her, _touching _her, but she couldn't finish to tell him she didn't want him to call her 'Squirt', even if he had done so a million times before anyway, because before she got the opportunity, Edward's lips slanted over hers and she forgot about anything else. What she was going to say, where she was, maybe even her own name.

Despite the many, _many _times Bella had imagined herself being kissed by Edward, nothing could have prepared her for the whirlwind of emotions that washed over her when it finally happened for real.

One of his hands cupped her cheek as his lips caressed hers over and over again, and Bella was completely blown away by the tenderness with which he held her, like he was afraid he would scare her away and she would beg him to stop if he was too demanding.

If he only knew. Nothing in this world could make her pull away from him, not even the need for air.

Her head was already spinning from the prolonged contact, but Bella actually really thought she would completely lose her mind when Edward sucked on her bottom lip, causing a small moan to spill from her half-parted mouth.

Unable to stop herself, she involuntarily begged him for more, her tongue peeking out and caressing Edward's when she felt it pass over her now moist lips, both of them groaning the second they touched.

Angling her head and feeling his control slipping away still a little more, Edward plunged his tongue into Bella's hot mouth, seeking hers and tangling with it, until Bella felt herself all but swoon over. She was actually fairly certain that the only reason she was still sitting there and hadn't already slid to the floor was because Edward had yet to release his gentle grip on her, and she was actually wondering just how long she would still be able to hold on in such position and have that be enough, when Edward eventually pulled away from her.

"Happy Birthday, Squirt!" he murmured softly when they parted, before he grazed her lips once more in a small, tender kiss at her obvious whimper of protest.

"Wow!" barely recovering, Bella blurted out hoarsely, her fingers coming to touch her now slightly swollen lips before she could reason with herself, the small gesture making Edward smile gently.

"Yeah…" he cleared his throat, doing his best to not show just how affected he had been himself by that simple kiss and barely managing to stop himself from trying to reiterate the experience right away. "I think I've heard that before…" he added a second later as he tried to compose himself.

"Always so smug." Bella responded, still a little dazed, but despite her words, she knew he had every reason to be proud of himself.

Never in her life, or in all the other times she had been with a guy, had a mere kiss ever had so much effect on her, and Bella had a hard time trying to figure out if it was due to the fact that she had just kissed Edward Cullen, the man she had been in love with for as long as she could remember, or simply that he just really knew how to kiss a girl. All in all she guessed that it didn't really matter, but god, if he hadn't left her all but breathless.

"What can I say?" Edward shrugged and smirked openly now, leaving Bella simply looking at him.

He was right, there was nothing to say after such an amazing kiss, and it would certainly still take a few more minutes before she was able to really hold any kind of conversation.

"So, anyway… about that lucky guy… Anyone I might know?" Edward asked a moment later, as he saw one of the counter customers leave his stool and he disposed of his glass before wiping clean the section of the counter he had been sitting at.

"Maybe…" Bella replied just as enigmatically as he had himself earlier about her present, understanding that, apparently, they wouldn't be talking about, or commenting on what had just transpired between them.

Maybe it was for the best, at least for now, she considered briefly, but that didn't stop her from licking her lips in the hopes of still catching some of his taste on them, or swearing to herself that she would do all she could to feel his lips on hers again before the end of the night.

"Well, let me know when he gets here then… I have to see what's so special about him!" Edward demanded as he took her glass and filled it again, only with just coke and lime juice this time, before placing it back in front of her. "This one is on the house!" he added with a wink, although he would make sure no one took her money even for the others, and then he walked away from her without saying another word, knowing that for his own sanity, he should take a moment to himself, if only a few minutes, so he could calm himself some down and regain some semblance of composure.

Waiting so long to finally kiss Bella Swan had definitely been worthwhile, if not nearly enough, and if he were honest with himself, he just couldn't wait to do it again.

~ 0 * 0 ~

**TBC...**


	3. Alcohol and Virgins don't mix

**Author**: **Rebecca. **

**Title**: **Blame it on the Moon. **

**Category**: AU. All human. Edward and Bella.

**Rating**: **M**

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own anything so don't sue if you're not happy with what I wrote, you wouldn't be gaining anything!

**AN**: Here goes the next part… thanks guys for the reviews and the PMs, you know who you are! ;)

Hope you enjoy this chapter, too!

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter Two<span>****: _Alcohol and Virgins don't mix, you should have known it_**.

"Hey, you!" **B**ella called out to the blonde bartender in front of her, rolling her eyes when he looked at her suspiciously and seemed to wonder if she was really addressing him. Again. "Yes, _you_!"

Jordan Morgan considered himself a very patient man. He had to be with the job he did, having experienced many times that you definitely couldn't always choose who you served, or hope that every customer knew how to behave themselves, but even the most patient of men had his breaking point and Jordan was seriously thinking he was reaching the end of his rope.

A normal Bella, on a normal day, he could definitely handle, but what he was having to deal with now, was not something he thought he could take much longer.

The girl was positively drunk and had not stopped making all kind of demands ever since he had taken over Aidan, who, lucky bastard, had left a moment ago for his one hour break.

Aidan had in fact specifically told him to be careful of how and what he served to her, and while Jordan had done his best to follow his recommendations to the letter, making sure he put half the dose of alcohol he would normally put in the drinks she had ordered, he hadn't counted on her going behind his back and finding ways to still get more of what she obviously wanted.

One moment of inattention on his part and she had managed to have a guy offer her some of the tequila shots he had been having himself and that, added to all that she had already consumed in the course of the night, had certainly not helped the situation.

Telling Edward that he hadn't seen it coming and that he had only had his back turned a few minutes would certainly not fly with him either, no matter the fact that the bar had suddenly looked like a zoo and that it had clearly not been his fault.

Since then, Bella seemed to have reached the state she had been looking for and she had noticeably slowed down her consummation, having not ordered another alcoholic drink for a while now and surprisingly preferring the fruity cocktails he had tried to convince her to have when he had started attending to her, cocktails that she had refused at first, but that didn't mean that she had not found other ways to still have some fun.

Currently, she was the center of attention at the end of the bar, or maybe even more than she had already been before, showing the men around that, even drunk, she was still her brilliant self. Jordan had actually smiled himself at first when one guy had tried to hit on her and she had not so nicely made him understand that she was way too clever to fall for his lines, and since then she had only been proving them all around how right she was.

Jordan had always known the girl was a genius, Emmett certainly not hiding Bella's many scholar accomplishments, but even he was impressed to see with how much easiness she managed to answer all the different questions the guys near her tried to come up with to stump her, even if she was certainly doing so with a muddled brain.

No one had managed to achieve that yet, though, no matter how hard they tried, or what subject they chose to interrogate her on, and Jordan could only hope, as much as he feared what Bella would ask him now, that the fact that she was calling him once more meant that she was finally done with her little game. He really didn't know how much more of her cries of victory and the guys' groans of defeat he could take.

"Yes?" he barely resisted the urge he felt to sigh and tried to remember that he was doing this for his boss.

Edward had specifically told him to make sure Bella stayed out of trouble before he had left himself to go and take care of a few things in his office and then went on a short break himself as well, and if only because of what he had seen earlier, Jordan knew he better not mess the job he had been asked to do. There would already be enough hell to pay when Edward would come back and see that Bella could barely stand on her own now.

Jordan didn't know what he should make of that kiss he had witnessed earlier, but he would have had to be blind to not see the way Emmett's sister had been literally devouring her brother's best friend with her eyes, and that for almost as long as he had still been there.

Edward himself had been more discreet, but not enough so yet that Jordan had not caught him looking back at her one too many times to be really honest. Jordan couldn't help thinking that there was definitely something there, and the fact that Bella was now asking him if he knew where Edward could have gone only confirmed his suspicions.

Whatever was happening though, and whether that was serious or not, the guy had balls, Jordan would at least give him that, he admitted as he could already picture what Emmett's reaction would be, if he didn't know what was going on yet. No, he really didn't envy Edward that much right now, no matter how beautiful he himself thought the girl he had apparently chosen could be.

"Edward?" Jordan still repeated, raising an eyebrow at her as if he was wondering what she could want with Edward now, even if he already had a pretty clear idea of what that could be.

"Yes, Edward … your boss… you know, tall, _hot_, bronze-haired guy… hmm… soulful emerald eyes… and a body to die for and make any girl wet…" Bella elucidated for him almost dreamingly, briefly wondering herself what could be wrong with him, since in her state, she didn't understand the meaning of his covered question and she obviously thought he was suffering from sudden amnesia and didn't see who she was talking about.

Jordan, however, would have preferred to be deaf than having to hear such description of his boss, no matter how true he was sure that actually could be. He had seen enough women, and of all ages, coming to the club and nearly tripping all over themselves when they saw Edward Cullen, to have too hard a time believing this now.

"Too much information, Bella!" he couldn't help remarking nonetheless, and then rolled his eyes when Bella pouted at him in answer, in a way that he was sure had most likely all the men in her life doing exactly what she wanted them to do once she did that. "He said something about taking a break." He conceded at last when he realized that Bella would probably not appreciate if he decided to play some with her mind and her patience.

"Oh…" Bella sighed, clearly not very satisfied with that answer.

It seemed to her that Edward had been gone for hours already and if she didn't know better, she would have said that she was seriously in withdrawal already. She wanted to see him more than she could want her next breath and she would have certainly gone after him and in search of him already, if she hadn't been so sure that she would most likely collapse on her way and that before she actually found him.

"When will he be back?" she found herself asking before she could think about it and voluntarily ignored Jordan when he rolled his eyes once more at her question.

"I'm not his keeper, Bella … he's the boss… he will be back when _he_wants to…" Jordan reminded her, drying glasses and putting them in the shelves behind him.

"Did he say where he was going?" Bella still insisted, much to the bartender's dismay, who wondered how many more of the twenty questions he would still have to go through before Bella realized that, no matter how many times she could grill him, or how much she didn't like it, the only thing to do would be to wait.

"Like I said… I'm not his keeper…" Jordan reiterated, not wanting to sound rude, but surely not sharing Bella's near obsession with Edward's whereabouts.

"You know what… that… that's just so… you're really not cool, Gordon…" Bella replied with another pout, as she shook her head at him in disapproval.

"Jordan!" the man repeated for what was probably the tenth time tonight, wondering if she was doing it on purpose, or really didn't remember what his name really was. Not that it really mattered truthfully, but still.

"Whatever!" Bella dismissed, turning to the guy near her and asking him for his opinion. "Don't you think he's not cool?"

The man chuckled and nodded, although he couldn't care less if what she was saying was indeed true or not.

He was more interested in seeing how much longer it would take him to finally convince her to accept his invitation to come and finish the night at home with him. The last time he had suggested it, she had said that the night was still young and that it was still too soon for her to leave and she still needed more time before she was ready.

When he had curiously asked '_Ready for what?_' and she had answered, he had nearly swallowed his own tongue.

Hearing her whisper conspiratorially that she was going to lose her virginity tonight but that he couldn't repeat it to anyone because the man she had in mind still didn't really know about it, had certainly been the last thing he had expected to hear, but there was no saying that he had done his very best since then to convince her that that guy had probably nothing on him and that she would certainly have a better time with him than with any other guy she could have thought of to help her with that, whoever that could be.

"You are _sooooo_much cooler than him!" Bella slurred slightly in approval, patting the man in the back at the same time, but nearly falling all over him as she did.

Hmm, he smelled an awfully lot like beer and cold tobacco, she realized now and she wasn't sure she liked that that much.

"Why don't we go back to my apartment now, and I'll show you just how 'cool' I can indeed be?" the man suggested, eyeing Bella appreciatively once more, thinking that he really couldn't wait to see her out of all that leather, no matter how surely hot it looked on her. "What do you say?"

His eyes went briefly to her face again and he couldn't stop himself from smiling broadly when he saw it break into a dreamy grin, sure that she was finally going to accept to follow him and he would have the time of his life with her.

Bella patted his shoulder again, face inches from his now, and when she slowly opened her mouth at last, he was all too ready to drink her words.

She smiled once more, but what passed her full, luscious lips then, was certainly not what he had been hoping to hear.

"I say… I'm peeing my pants!" she blurted out, giggling and bringing an embarrassed hand to her mouth when she realized what she had just announced.

Before the man seating near her could recover then and say another word, not that he would have had much to say to that, she was slapping her hands a few times on the counter to get the bartender's attention again and calling him closer.

"The restroom's calling me… watch my stool, okay?" she asked him, and satisfied when he nodded, she stepped down said stool -although it suddenly seemed to be _way_higher than she remembered it to be when she had first sat there- turning one last time once she thought she had gained enough equilibrium to walk on her own. "Thank you, Gordon… you're such a sweetie!"

"_Jordan_!" he didn't know why he still bothered, but Jordan couldn't help correcting her once more.

That quickly became the last of his worries however, when he saw Bella's 'new friend' being all too ready to follow just behind her, apparently not caring in the least of where exactly she had gone, and Jordan found himself stopping him before he could even step down from his own stool.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Jordan warned him, not surprised to see the man's reaction.

"Well, you ain't me, man… and that piece of ass is definitely calling _me_!" he answered almost in a sneer, already picturing how they could start things in that restroom and then continue them at his place.

"Do you have any idea of who that girl is?" Jordan asked him then, thinking that if he didn't yet, he would make sure he did in a second.

"_Who_is she?" the man replied, not caring that much, but if she was someone important, it couldn't be so bad to hear him out.

"You like this club, right? And you come here often… I've seen you before…" Jordan said, the man's nod -even if it was clear by the way he frowned at the same time that he didn't see where the bartender was going with that for now- confirming that his memory wasn't failing him. "Do you know who Emmett Swan is?" he added then, when he was sure that he had the other guy's attention.

"Of course I do…" Everyone did around Forks. He owned half of this nightclub and from what he had not only heard but what he had _seen_as well, the man was no joke and he surely didn't want to have to come too close to him if he had a choice in the matter.

Surely that hot brunette wasn't in any way related to him, was she?

"That girl you're trying to pick up?… she's his sister! And he's very protective of her!" Jordan revealed, clearly seeing understanding dawn on the man when he blanched slightly.

"You shitting me!" he said, already reconsidering his plans for the night. As much as he wanted the girl, he wasn't anywhere ready to mess with the brother.

"Trust me, if you value your life… you don't want to come anywhere too close to her…" Jordan continued, knowing that even if Emmett wasn't there tonight, someone else would surely make sure he had no opportunity to go through what Jordan was sure was in his mind.

Edward might have left Bella out of his direct sight for now, but if that kiss he had seen earlier was any indication, as were the instructions he had given him before going to his office, it surely didn't mean that he wasn't still 'watching' her.

The club had cameras at every angle, some of the monitors being in Edward and Emmett's offices and Jordan would bet his salary that Edward had a close eye on them and more particularly on what Bella was doing. He was actually kind of surprised he had not come back yet and gotten her out of there, but Jordan was sure he would be there in a second and would immediately intervene if he saw anyone trying to leave with Bella.

"Shit!" the other man grumbled, not quite believing his bad luck. Of all the girls in the club, he just had to go after the one who had the potential to get him killed, or at least seriously hurt.

"You might even reconsider just staying..." Jordan began then, moving closer and whispering to him only. "I think there might even be something going on between her and her brother's best friend... and if he comes back to see this... you're a dead man!" he finished in a shrug, as if to say that he had helped him as much as he could and that it was now up to him to see if he indeed valued his life or not.

* * *

><p>Reaching the restroom and getting done with her business had actually been easier to do for Bella than she had first thought it would. What had proven to be harder had been to get back into her tight molding suit. She didn't remember the simple task of dressing herself being this hard the first time she had let herself slid into her never used before outfit earlier in the evening. But then, she had been sober at the moment and that certainly made all the difference in the world.<p>

The restroom was surprisingly empty when Bella exited her stall and after having washed her hands, she couldn't help taking a long look at herself in the mirror. She had a hard time focusing, but for maybe the first time in her life, she actually liked what she saw.

She didn't consider herself as being strikingly beautiful, but watching herself in that leather outfit once more, she could admit that she would surely not kick herself out of bed, at least not tonight.

All night she had had to spurn men's advances and while she had not been drunk enough to not understand what they all wanted and what they were really looking for, she couldn't deny that it had done something to her ego to see that for once, she could turn men's heads like she had so often before seen her friends do. After all, Rosalie or Alice, Edward's sister, just had to walk in a room to catch almost all the men's attention and for once in her life, shy and too innocent Bella Swan was glad to know how that felt.

That however, did nothing to stop her heart from beating a tad bit faster as she pondered her next step. She knew what she had to do, she had stalled long enough, what was hard though was to finally get out of there and go after what she had come here for tonight.

Apparently Edward had gone MIA and she wasn't sure that she would have the necessary patience to wait until he decided to make a reappearance and come back to her.

They weren't so many places he could have gone to anyway. Either he was at the front of the club, in one of the game rooms, or simply in his office.

She hoped he was in the latter, considering that she couldn't quite picture herself doing what she had in mind in a more public place, but if he weren't there, she guessed it would be up to her to lure him into a more private room.

Bella actually felt herself trembling at the mere thought of what could be at her fingertips and she mentally coached herself, trying to convince herself that everything would go alright and that she had no reason to panic.

It wasn't the first time she tried this after all, even if she clearly hoped it wouldn't end up in the same disaster it had three years ago when she had first been ready to offer herself to Edward Cullen and tell him exactly how she felt about him.

* * *

><p><em>Looking up to Edward's apartment <em>_Bella expelled a long nervous sigh, coaxing herself into taking the steps that would lead her inside._

_She didn't think that she had ever been so anxious in her whole life, but then she guessed she had good reason to. What she was about to do was probably the craziest thing she had ever done in her life, but she had thought about it long and hard and she knew that this was exactly what she wanted._

_If everything went like she wanted it, she would soon lose her virginity to the man she had loved practically her whole life._

_Bella couldn't have been more than ten years old in fact when she had realized that the intensity of her feelings for her brother's best friend couldn't any longer be associated to mere friendship._

_Edward Cullen had been a constant feature in her life, as had been his family, Renee Swan and Esme __Cullen having met when they had both gone into early labor and had been forced to share a room under the circumstances. All too naturally, the two women had bonded over the births of their respective first child and had been the best of friends ever since then, the fact that Edward and Emmett had always gotten along so fine having less to do then with the fact that they shared the same birthday than the fact that their parents shared such a strong bond together._

_When five years later, Isabella Marie Swan had been born, no one had been surprised to see the two boys taking to her so easily, or see how protective they grew of her with the years. Some even liked to comment on the fact that Edward seemed to care even more for her and watched over her more than he could over his own sister who was born three years earlier._

_Edward and Emmett had always done everything together and since Bella looked up to her brother for almost everything, it was only natural she had spent so much time with Edward as well, and only natural probably if she had ended up falling head over heels in love with him._

_No one had known about her feelings for a long time though, until Emmett had started dating Rosalie Hale a few months ago and she had seemed to figure it out the second she had seen Bella interacting with Edward._

_Bella had wanted to deny it at first of course, almost ashamed to have been so easily read by a girl who had barely known her, but when Rosalie had assured her that she had no reason to hide it but what was more, no reason either to fear she wouldn't keep her secret, Bella had let herself confide in someone else for once what she had never before dared tell a soul._

_Saying the words aloud had actually left her feeling somewhat relieved and with Rosalie's help and ego-boosting, she had let herself be convinced that she could maybe make Edward see her as something more than his best friend's baby sister, or the little timid girl he had known all his life._

_Rosalie had actually been sure anyway that Edward felt more for her than anyone suspected, the way he looked at her at times and spoke to her being, at least according to Rosalie, far from being as innocent as he could want to make them think it was._

_As an example, she had also reminded Bella of how he had reacted not a month ago when he had gone and rescued her in La Push Woods and Bella could admit that he had indeed looked frantic, when she had called him after a horrendous date and he had immediately come to pick her up._

_It hadn't taken Rosalie much more after that to convince Bella that she should really give it a try and just be honest with Edward, sure that Bella would be surprised by his reaction, although Rosalie probably didn't even just suspect how far Bella was willing to take her advice._

_In any case, all that was what had brought her here on this night, ready to give Edward's the most special gift she could give him. Herself._

_Truthfully, if many believed she had more experience than she truly had, James Laurent having seen to that, Bella had never pictured herself making love to anyone but Edward Cullen and she truly hoped it would be everything she had always imagined it to be._

_She knew that if he didn't simply reject her at the first suggestion of course, Edward would be the most attentive, tender and sweet lover she could ever hope for. But then she guessed there was only one way to verify what she knew in her heart to be true._

_Checking her appearance in her compact mirror one last time, __Bella took in a huge gulp of air and eventually ascended the steps that hopefully would lead her to the most amazing moment of her life._

_As she walked down the long corridor that led to Edward's apartment, Bella realized briefly that it would probably be one of the last times she would have the opportunity to do so and be really alone with Edward, he and Emmett being only a few weeks away from moving into the way bigger apartment they had restored above their club. Bella was sure that Edward himself wouldn't mind that much leaving his one bedroom apartment for the nearly five times bigger space, but she would surely miss the intimacy of this one._

_Many evenings had been spent here alone with him, watching DVDs or simply talking and she knew that many things would change once he would have moved out. She loved her brother dearly, but for having been the one living with him until then, she knew just how intrusive he could be when he wanted. Edward probably didn't know what he had signed for, no matter how close they could truly indeed be._

_A few seconds later, Bella found herself in front of the apartment 2B and wasn't surprised to see how much her hand was trembling when she lifted it up to knock on Edward's door._

_As she waited for him to come and open to her, she couldn't help smoothing down her dress, hoping that he wouldn't think it was too much. Rosalie had said that the little black dress she had chosen would be perfect, but then Rosalie had not known what exactly Bella had in mind for tonight. Emmett's girlfriend thought Bella just planned to reveal her feelings to Edward, but Bella herself hoped that her night wouldn't limit itself to that and that hopefully, Edward wouldn't give her the opportunity to keep that dress on longer than necessary._

_Bella was already shuddering at the mere prospect when she heard voices coming from inside and she realized that unless what she was hearing was coming from the television, Edward was definitely not alone._

_She had no time to wonder about who could be with him though, that the door opened and she found herself looking straight into the eyes of one apparently confused Edward __Cullen._

_"__Bella?" the way he uttered her name confirmed her thoughts, but Bella was just too busy undressing him with her eyes to really pay much attention right now. "What are you doing here?"_

_The question seemed to fly past her as well and Edward couldn't help calling her name once more and waving a hand in front of her._

_Bella seemed to snap out of it at that, but that didn't stop Edward from swallowing audibly at the way she had been looking at him, like she was picturing what was hiding under his white tee-shirt and only seconds away from tearing it apart and finding out._

_"Hey!" Bella said a little more cheerfully than what was probably normal, her obvious nervousness having Edward frowning at her._

_"Hey, yourself!" he replied a little awkwardly, and it took a moment for Bella to realize that he seemed a little too uncomfortable himself, and what was more, that he hadn't even invited her to come in yet. "What are you doing here?" he repeated, wondering why she hadn't called first before coming knocking down on his door._

_She always did usually, and the fact that she hadn't this time made him instantly fear something could be wrong with her._

_She looked okay as far as he could tell, more than okay in fact, she looked absolutely and stunningly beautiful -but then when had he not thought so lately?- but that still didn't reassure him completely._

_"What? Can't I come and visit a friend now?" Bella queried with a small teasing smile, but at the same time she couldn't stop her heart from beating faster, almost instinctively sensing that something was not right here._

_Edward should have let her in by now, but he looked like he was actually guarding his door, as if to prevent her from having a look inside, and as she suddenly realized what it could mean and the possibility that he could already have a woman in there with him crossed her mind, Bella couldn't fight the wave of nausea that assailed her._

_"Yes, of course, you can… it's just… you usually call… I…" Edward stuttered, wanting to let her in, but not sure about how that would work out with Angela already in there._

_He knew that he was not doing anything wrong, but somehow the thought of Bella seeing her made him uncomfortable. Ever since that day in La Push Woods a few weeks ago, things had been weird between them to say the least, between him not knowing how to react with her, and her seeming to avoid him every chance she had, or at least that was the impression she had been giving him, but for whatever reason that was, reason he would rather not analyze for now, Edward still didn't want her to get the wrong idea._

_"You should have called, Bella …" he whispered before he could stop himself and immediately regretted it when he saw Bella's face close the second he said the words. "I mean…"_

_"Why should I…" Bella started, but whatever she was going to say got lost when another voice interrupted them, making her gasp aloud before she could control herself._

_"Edward?" someone called from inside the apartment and Bella found herself taking a step back, looking suddenly like she had been physically slapped._

_"I… just give me a minute…" Edward said to whoever was inside, although his eyes never left the woman just in front of him, standing there like petrified. "Bella?" he breathed out, cringing when she took another step back from him, when he moved forward and closed the door behind him._

_"I-I'm sorry… I didn't… I-I thought… I…" Bella stuttered after a moment, but Edward would have had to be blind not to see something was seriously wrong with her now._

_"No, it's okay… I'm… I'm just with a friend…" Edward was quick to say, even if he couldn't understand why it seemed so important to him that she believed him._

_"A f-friend, right…" Bella repeated in a broken murmur, cursing herself inwardly when she couldn't even control her own voice. "I shouldn't… I-I shouldn't have come… I'm s-sorry…" how she even said that much she didn't know, but she knew it wouldn't take much longer before she broke down completely and she wanted to be as far away from Edward as possible before that could happen, the last thing she wanted being for him to witness her humiliation._

_God, she had been so stupid to listen to Rosalie. All those things she had been so sure about, they had all been figments of her imagination because clearly Edward didn't care in the least about her, at least not in the way she wanted him to._

_He had a woman in there and she had probably interrupted them, the mere thought of that bringing tears to her eyes. Really, what would he want with her when he had a _real_ woman in there, probably all too ready to satisfy him and actually knowing _how_, contrary to her._

_"No, wait… if you needed anything…" Edward caught her wrist before she could completely leave, and instantly realized how much she was trembling. Oh, yes, whatever it was, there was definitely something wrong with her. "Bella?"_

_"No, I'm… I'm f-fine…" she tried to say, but her voice cracked on the last word and had Edward immediately pulling her around._

_The instant he did though, he couldn't help sucking in a breath, the vision of Bella in tears nearly breaking his heart._

_"God, what's going on?" he inquired immediately, trying to pull her to him, but she resisted him, much to his surprise._

_"Nothing… I'm... I'm going home… I'm sorry…" Bella replied between gasps and tried to pull her hand out of his, Edward tightening his grip on her when she did._

_"No! You're not going anywhere like this!" he argued right away, wondering how she could think, even if just for a second, that he would let her leave in such a state. "Come on, come with me inside and we'll talk… whatever it is, I'm sure it will be alright!" he promised, but frowned the next second at Bella's snort._

_"No, it won't…" she whispered achingly and walked away from him, hurrying down the hall, but not fast enough for Edward to not react and catch her._

_"Bella, stop…"_

_"Don't…" Bella hissed at him when he tried to touch her again, hurt filling Edward's eyes at seeing her react that way._

_Nothing made sense to him, but he would be damned if he didn't try to find out what was happening here._

_Decidedly, he reached out for her once more, but wasn't anywhere prepared for her reaction. Before he could close his arms around her, she pushed him away with a strength he didn't know she possessed, shouting out at him to leave her alone._

_Stunned, he watched as she let go of her purse and stumbled back, backing herself into a corner at the end of the hallway, and brought a hand to her stomach as if she were suddenly in pain._

_Her other hand seemed to clutch at the wall and Edward felt his own world spinning as he realized what would happen if he couldn't calm her down._

_"Bella … Bella, don't do this, okay?" he pleaded with her, stepping as close to her as he could now and gently cupping her face. "Breathe, okay?... you have to breathe, sweetie…" he coaxed her, knowing that she would hyperventilate if she didn't._

_"I c-can't… I… I-I… E-Edward …" Bella continued gasping, already feeling her lungs burn from the lack of air._

_She knew she had to breathe if she didn't want to end up in the hospital like the last time this had happened to her, years back but for the same reason, Edward, even if he didn't know that, but she just couldn't seem to be able to. It just hurt too much._

Everything _hurt._

_"Look at me, baby…" Edward insisted, barely resisting the urge to cry himself when her tear-filled eyes met his, the pain he saw there being enough to make his stomach twist. "Breathe with me… just in and out... slowly… you have to calm down, okay?... you just have to!" he went on, brushing her tears away as they kept falling, as at the same time he tried to show her how to breathe properly._

_Bella nodded, even if what he was doing barely seemed to be enough to help her, but she did as he said, trying to match her breathing with his, even as tears kept rolling uncontrollably down her cheeks._

_"That's it… just nice and slow…" Edward encouraged softly as he rested his forehead against her own and wished for his heart rate to go back to a more normal rhythm._

_The way it beat so fast at the moment made him wonder how it had not completely failed him already and stopped altogether._

_Eyes locked with hers now, he kept looking at her, trying to transmit how much he needed her to be alright, instead of just how much she was scaring him. He hadn't witnessed her having such a crisis before, having only seen her later at the hospital and once she was already okay again the last time, but for having heard the story many times before, he knew just how impressive it could become._

_His gentle touch and his close proximity seemed to do the trick however, and Edward was almost relieved when he saw her able to breathe again more or less normally on her own._

_His respite was short-lived nonetheless since not long after, he saw Bella let herself slide down against the wall behind her and suddenly break into huge sobs. He was by her side in a second, kneeling before her and pulling her into his lap, just there in the middle of the hallway, where anyone could walk by and see them, even despite Bella's obvious protest._

_He felt her fight against him a few too long seconds, but his own insistence eventually broke her apparent resolve to reject his help, Edward probably never having felt more relieved than he did when she collapsed against him at last and brought her arms around his neck. The way she held him then, almost desperately was enough to nearly cut his air supply, but Edward wouldn't have asked her to let go for anything in the world._

_"Shh… it's okay, sweetness… whatever it is, it will be alright, you'll see… I promise…" Edward soothed her, hands caressing the length of her back in the hopes of bringing her as little comfort as he could. "I'm right here…. I've got you… you have no reason to cry…"_

_He had honestly no idea of what could be wrong with her, or why she was crying like her very heart was breaking, but he still spent the next ten minutes, probably the longest of his life, promising her that whatever it was, he would take care of it for her if he could and whispering sweet nothings in her ear._

_He didn't care how long it took though, and only when he was sure that she was calmed enough to talk to him, did he let himself pull away from her._

_"You okay, now?" he breathed out ever so softly after having made sure he had carefully brushed all her tears away, only going on when Bella nodded, even if the gesture was still quite hesitant. "Good… now talk to me… what's going on?... you know you can talk to me about anything, right?" he assured her, wanting to help her in any way he could, if only to never have to see her in such a state ever again._

_"I c-can't…" Bella replied a little too quickly for Edward's liking and he knew he would need to insist some more before she would open up to him._

_"Is it Mike again? Did he try anything with you again?" Edward ventured a guess, promising himself that if she were to answer positively, he would just go and kick the guy's ass for good this time, instead of just merely threatening him and ordering him to stay away from Bella like he had the last time._

_Then Edward had been sure that the guy had understood he should better not mess with him or Bella again, but if that hadn't been clear enough, he would just have to make it even _clearer _for the bastard._

_Bella could have actually laughed at seeing Edward being so clueless. She could care less about Mike Newton, she never had in fact and had surely not done anything to see him again after that last date they had gone on together, but she found it funny that Edward could bring it up again, like it could be important in any way._

_She had always considered Edward to be a clever man, but he was obviously unable to see what was just in front of his eyes, or to realize that everything, all this, every single tear she had ever shed over a man, had always been just because of him._

_She wondered briefly how he would react then, if she were to tell him everything that was in her mind. If she were to reveal that she was in love with him and had always been, or that she had come to him tonight to show him how much she did, only to have him break her heart instead, because voluntarily or not, that was exactly what he had done._

_Instead though, she just shook her head, telling Edward that it had nothing to do with 'Mike', but that she didn't want to talk about it._

_"You sure?" Edward insisted, brushing a few strands of hair behind her ears, the tender gesture nearly bringing Bella to tears again._

_How could he be so gentle with her and not realize what she felt for him, or what that did to her?_

_His eyes were roaming her face, as if he were watching to see if he could read the answers to all his questions on her features and Bella was almost tempted to stop hiding how much she could love him and just let him see the truth for once._

_Before she could make up her mind however, the door to Edward's apartment opened and they were once more interrupted._

_"Edward? Everything's alright?" Angela asked tentatively, having heard the girl's distressed sobs earlier, it would have been hard not to, but the last thing she wanted was to make her or Edward feel uncomfortable._

_She couldn't help wondering though, who the girl could be, or if she was actually the one Edward had been talking almost nonstop about earlier._

_She wasn't even sure he had realized he was doing it when he had started, but once she had remarked that he was talking a lot about that 'Bella friend' to not feel more than just friendship for her, Angela had not been surprised to see him unable to deny it completely._

_He was clearly confused about how he felt however, that much had been clear to her, too, and he was apparently trying to convince himself that he should try to forget all about those feelings instead of letting them evolve into something more._

_If that was indeed Bella, she was also the sister of Edward's best friend, Emmett, and a few years younger than them, and that was what was making him think that it just couldn't be meant to be. That _he _couldn't let it mean more than it already, much to his dismay, did._

_Still, if what she was seeing now was any indication, what Edward said and what he did were two completely different things. He obviously couldn't stay away from the girl even if he wished to._

_She would have been green with envy and jealousy herself at seeing them plastered to each other, so close in fact that they were probably breathing in the same air, if she had been feeling _that_ way about him. _

_Edward didn't even let go of whom she was more and more sure could only be __Bella when he spotted her there, on the contrary. The girl apparently tried to make him do so, but Edward only seemed to hold her tighter and she settled down again in his arms, her own wrapping all too naturally around his neck once more._

_What Angela noticed as well, was the fact that not once did the girl in Edward's arms look in her direction, like the last thing she wanted was to actually see who was there and what she could look like herself._

_Bella just couldn't even venture a look to the other woman, sure that it would just kill her if she saw the face of whom she considered to be one more rival. It wouldn't be the first time she saw Edward with one of his conquests, even if she couldn't say he was a womanizer and had probably had far less women than many could think he had._

_Just a few weeks back, he had been going out with Lauren Mallory and although __Bella had no idea why they had suddenly decided to part ways, their relation had lasted long enough for Bella to see them together more than she had wished for, or been able to bear, but if that had already hurt on its own, seeing him with this girl was yet different._

_This girl had just sent all her plans and dreams crashing down and had shattered her more than anyone else had ever before, simply because it had never meant as much and she had surely never been on the verge of giving herself to Edward, only to find him already with another woman. A woman who was probably all Edward had ever looked for in a woman and more in his eyes than she could ever be herself._

_"Yes… just give me a few more minutes…" Edward answered, only looking back at Angela a few brief seconds, before his attention was solely focused on Bella again, and Angela decided to wait some more instead of saying what she had meant to._

_She wanted to tell Edward that she should better leave and let him take his friend inside, but Edward didn't give her the opportunity to do so and without saying another word, she went back inside, deciding to let Edward handle the situation the way he judged it best to._

_"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to ruin your night…" Bella whispered out once they were alone again, swallowing around the lump in her throat, her heart tightening once more as she thought that even_

_her freaking voicesounded sexy._

_She was probably all blonde and buxom and beautiful, and everything Bella was so not herself._

_"You aren't, don't worry…" Edward was quick to assure her. "Do you want to come in with me?… you could…" he ventured carefully, the last thing he wanted being to make her feel like he would pressure her and force her to talk even if she didn't want to, but she cut him off before he could finish._

_"No… no…" __Bella shook her head almost furiously, surely not wanting to come anywhere close to Edward's new girlfriend. "I just… I'll go home now… I'm sorry…"_

"Bella, you don't need to go…" Edward insisted once more, already feeling her pulling away from him, physically, but more than that, emotionally as well. "Come in with me, I can prepare you some tea, or whatever you want."

_"No… it was stupid coming here in the first place…" Bella retorted right away, yet she strangely didn't make any effort to get up and leave Edward's lap._

_"It was not… don't say that…" Edward frowned instantly, feeling like the worst of friends for not being able to make her say why she had come here to begin with and what had made her lose it like she just had. "I just wished you would talk to me… I hate to see you like this…" he confessed in a hoarse whisper, thumbs caressing her cheekbones gently before he could stop himself._

_Bella however didn't know what to say to that, and with a sigh, Edward resigned himself to let it go for now and maybe bring the topic up later, when she wouldn't be so obviously sensitive about it._

_"Okay… let me just take my things and I'll take you home…" he breathed out at last, knowing that Bella could be as stubborn, if not more, as he could ever be himself._

_"It's okay… you don't need to… I can…" Bella started to say that she could perfectly walk home from there, after all Edward only lived a few blocks from her parents' restaurant and the apartment they occupied just above it, but Edward wouldn't hear of it._

_"I know you can, but humor me, okay? I'm not letting you walk home like this!" he interjected right away, wanting to at least do this for her, if he couldn't convince her to trust him with whatever was going on in her mind._

_"Okay…" seeing that she would apparently not win that one, Bella resolved herself to let him do what he wanted for now, even if she was sure his 'girlfriend' would surely not appreciate to see him leave to bring her home._

_It was already a miracle she had not thrown a tantrum when she had seen him with a girl sitting on his lap. Bella knew she would surely have herself, had she been in her shoes._

_"Okay…" Edward repeated, yet made no move to stand up either, their eyes locking in an intense stare, and Edward only realized where one of his hands had come to rest when he heard Bella's small gasp._

_Looking down to where his hand was now on one of her thighs, that was also when Edward realized that her dress had ridden up more than was decent considering their situation, when he had pulled her into his lap._

_Swallowing hard, he tried to ignore just how soft her skin felt under his palm, and forced himself to grab her hips and help her stand up before he did something none of them was probably ready for._

_"Just stay here… don't go anywhere without me, okay?" he asked of her when he was up himself and was sure he could stand on his own two feet without making a fool out of himself._

_Bella nodded and then tried to smile at him when Edward smiled softly and touched a fingertip to her nose, just before he picked up her purse and handed it to her, but she couldn't help expelling a long trembling sigh when he was far enough to not hear her._

_She fought with all her might to not burst down into tears again and prayed for the strength to not break down before she was as far away from Edward as she possibly could and he wouldn't be able to witness her do so once more._

_Not five minutes later, and after having briefly explained the situation to Angela and told her that she could either wait for him to come back -although he didn't know how long that would take him- or she could see herself out and just close the door behind her, Edward was walking to Bella again, making her suck in a breath when he took one of her hands in his the second he joined her and rested his forehead against hers the next, sighing almost achingly then._

_"Don't you ever scare me like that again, okay?" he murmured, eyes closed, before opening them again and looking at her with an almost tortured expression,, his next action leaving Bella even more breathless and unable to say a word._

_The way he kissed her forehead gently made her tremble from head to toes and she could only be grateful when he laced his fingers with hers before taking the direction of the stairs, sure that she wouldn't have been able to take two steps, if he hadn't been holding her._

_Reaching his car that had been parked only a few feet in front of his building, he stopped just in front of the passenger door and opened it for her. Before she could get in however, he stopped her from doing so and gave her a look that as meaningful as Bella was sure it was meant to be, she couldn't analyze. What was really even more unsettling, was the kiss he planted on her knuckles before he released her hand at last._

_Bella wasn't surprised then to feel her knees buckle and nearly give out from under her, and she felt almost relieved when she felt the seat under her, forcing herself to not follow Edward with her eyes when he made his way around the car and took his own seat behind the wheel, and she didn't look at him either when he started the car and drove them to her home._

_Their ride was spent in silence and Edward nearly cursed aloud when he saw the New Moon and his huge sign looming in front of him sooner than he had wished it to._

_As he cut the ignition, still looking straight ahead, he wished he could find the words to make Bella feel a little better, but nothing seemed to come to his mind._

_Nothing, until he felt Bella move near him and heard her open the door on her side._

_"Thanks, Edward…" she whispered so softly, Edward wouldn't even have heard her if it hadn't been so quiet in the car._

_She was all too ready to leave things at that and run to the safety of her room, when Edward stopped her, the hand that closed around her wrist once more preventing her quick escape._

_"Wait…" he cried out desperately, the thought of her leaving like that making his heart tighten in pain. Instead he pulled her as close to him as he could, without it making them both uncomfortable, and breathed into her ear, "You know you can come to me for anything… anything at all… any time you want, right?" he said, clearly regretting the way he had reacted and handled things when he had first seen her at his door._

_Maybe if he had reacted differently and hadn't given her the impression that she wasn't welcomed at that moment, they wouldn't be where they were now._

_Completely overwhelmed now, Bella couldn't do much more than just nod, his forehead resting against her temple, both of them relishing in the small, almost insignificant contact a little longer than they probably should have and Bella knew she should really hurry now, if she didn't want the floodgates to open again._

_Her fingers grazed the side of his face then and after having kissed his cheek quickly and forced a strangled_ 'I know_' past her lips, she hurried inside, unaware that right along with hers, Edward's heart was shattering as well. _

* * *

><p>Back in the club bathroom, Bella shook her head, wishing the memories away. That was a long time ago, she had no reason to think about it now, and even if it had taken her three years almost to the day to finally work up the nerve to approach Edward again, tonight the ending would be different.<p>

She wasn't the same young and naïve girl she had been back then and she knew now what kind of weapons she had at her disposal to achieve her plans and seduce Edward Cullen.

Clearly, she had done it all wrong the last time, crying in his arms like a little baby when things didn't turn out like she wanted them. Instead, she should have walked in there, even after having heard that girl, made her understand that Edward was hers and no one else's, or would soon be, and then have her way with him once she would have managed to get rid of the other girl and she would have found herself alone with Edward at last.

It would have been all the easier since Bella had learned later on, once she had worked up the nerve to face Edward again a few days after the incident at his apartment and she had apologized once more for interrupting him and his new 'girlfriend', that 'Angela' was actually indeed only a friend he had helped when she had gone through a hard time, that revelation making Bella feel even more stupid than she had already felt, once she had found herself all alone in the confines of her room and had completely realized how much she had humiliated herself in front of Edward.

Her humiliation would have actually truly been complete however, if she had actually revealed to Edward what exactly she had wanted that night she had presented herself at his door, but fortunately, even if he had insisted to know what had been wrong with her that day in the beginning, he had given up after a while and left her alone, once he had understood that she wouldn't cave and that she simply didn't want to talk about it.

Things had gone back to normal between them after that, even if it had much more to do with Edward's efforts to act like nothing had happened than Bella's, and Bella could only be grateful that her failed attempt that day had not had more consequences than a short moment of embarrassment on her side.

She was determined to not repeat her past mistakes now however, and promised herself she would be more aggressive this time, if that was what it took, but that she would succeed. She just had to show Edward what he could have, if he was only willing to take a look at what was just under his nose.

Checking herself one last time in the mirror, Bella giggled softly as she gave her boobs a quick short squeeze and looked with satisfaction at the cleavage the tight leather that covered them created.

Smoothing down her hair some then, she winked at her reflection through the mirror and eventually exited the bathroom, all too ready to confront Edward at last.

As she reached the bar again first, she immediately noticed that her drinking buddy had apparently not waited around for her to come back. Not that she minded that much, but that didn't stop her from asking 'Gordon' where 'Tommy' had gone.

"Tommy?" Jordan parroted, not remembering knowing anyone going by that name. But then maybe he did, only under another name, since Bella seemed to have a few problems with that tonight.

"My new friend Tommy, where did he go?" she reiterated, pointing at the now empty stool near the one Gordon had apparently indeed saved for her.

"Had to go…" Jordan just said without elaborating more, but Bella seemed to forget whatever she was going to say to that when her gaze settled on something behind him on his left, and turning around to see what could have suddenly caught her complete attention, Jordan wasn't more surprised than that to find Edward Cullen in her line of vision. No more than he was to hear Bella tell him to watch her purse for her, because she had something important to do.

Without even giving him a chance to answer, she was then sashaying her way to where Edward was talking with one of the many waitresses, only a few feet from the dance floor, although Jordan suspected it had more to do with her more than slightly inebriated state, than any will or intention on her part to look sexy.

Edward would have actually preferred to be able to go directly back to the bar, but he was unfortunately stopped by Daphne on his way. Daphne was one of his best waitresses though, and if she stopped him because she was having a problem with a client, it could only mean that there was definitely something wrong.

Apparently one of her usual customers was making a scene because he had drunk more than was reasonable already and Daphne had kindly suggested that maybe he should stop now and go home.

Not surprisingly, the man had not appreciated the suggestion -they never did or knew when to quit- or the fact that he had not yet received the last drink he had ordered and consequently had demanded to see Daphne's boss.

Only if he thought that Edward would agree with him and go against his waitress, or tell her off for having acted like he had always recommended all his employees to act, he was seriously mistaken.

Edward couldn't care less if he lost some money because the guy couldn't drink any longer, no more than he cared if he actually decided that he wouldn't set foot in the club ever again and simply went and spent his money somewhere else because this club imposed some restrictions on his quota of drinking. As long as none of them could be held responsible for him quitting the place only to go and wrap his car around a tree or a streetlamp, that was all that really mattered.

Edward knew that the man was less than happy when after only a few seconds of talking with him, he made him understand that he could go home now because no one here would be serving him anything alcoholic any longer.

He was even less thrilled when Edward requested he gave him his car keys and called a bouncer on him when the guy obstinately refused to comply, but Edward didn't mind the numerous insults he heard as they escorted him out, knowing he had done the right thing.

All in all, it couldn't have taken Edward more than ten minutes to take care of the matter, but those were probably one of the longest ten minutes of his life. Or maybe they only felt so because he had already spent more time away from Bella than he was apparently capable of tonight.

Staying away had probably been one of the hardest things Edward had ever had to do, but that didn't mean that he hadn't kept an eye on her, or wasn't aware of everything she had been doing, ever since he had left and entered his office.

His eyes had been riveted on the monitors that transmitted what was happening at the counter almost all the time he had tried to work there, 'tried' being the operative word, because Edward could easily admit that he hadn't done much of what he had first intended to do.

If that kiss had not already been enough to completely shatter his concentration, seeing all those guys around Bella had certainly done the trick. Edward had actually lost count of how many times he had clenched his fists in anger and had needed to take deep breaths to calm himself and not rush back there to hurt them all, whenever he saw one of them getting just a little too close to Bella. None of them knew just how close they had come to finishing their night in a hospital bed.

Edward had even been tempted to make sure that happened when he had actually gotten a call from Emmett, because if Edward could barely stand the sight of all those vultures around Bella, Emmett would even less, of that much he was sure.

It would have been so easy, too, considering Emmett's already agitated state when he had contacted him. Apparently, after having tried to call Bella many times at home, just to make sure everything was alright since her parents were away for the night and he knew her to be alone, Emmett had gotten the unpleasant surprise to not find her there.

Then after more unsuccessful tries, both there and on her cell, Rosalie had had no choice but to admit that she knew Bella had intended to spend the night at 'New Moon', divulging her friend's plans to go there being more reasonable and less risky in her eyes, than letting Emmett call the police like had been his intention when he couldn't reach her and having half of the Forks police forces looking for her.

Not surprisingly, the second he had known where his sister was, Emmett had called his best friend to know how and what she was doing and Edward had simply not known how to lie to him.

To say that Emmett had been less than thrilled to hear that Bella had indeed been there and that she had apparently been celebrating her birthday in her very own way would be the understatement of the century, and it had taken all of Edward's patience and diplomacy to convince Emmett that he didn't need to come and get his sister.

Not that that thought hadn't crossed Edward's own mind many times during the course of the night, or that he hadn't wanted to see Bella leave himself, if only to not have to witness any longer that ridiculous dance all those peacocks seemed to be doing around her, but Edward had not wanted to embarrass Bella in any way, or have her end the night in tears or completely angry, because if there was one thing Edward had little doubt about, it was that things were sure to end that way if Emmett barged in there and dragged Bella out.

As much as Emmett could love his sister and be ready to do anything to protect her and make sure that no one hurt her, he wasn't always so subtle when it came to dealing with her himself. Emmett was all too prompt to act first and think later and Edward had lost count of the many times that had led to a verbal fight between Emmett and Bella, and for once, as much as he usually didn't like to come between them, or put his nose in their business, Edward was willing to spare Bella such a scene if he could. He had seen it happen too many times, girls getting drunk and bursting into tears at the slightest contrariety and he could bet that would be exactly what would happen with Bella, if he let her big brother come anywhere close to her before she had sobered up.

For that to happen however, Edward had had no choice but to let Emmett rant and rave and give him all the reasons he thought Edward would be responsible for whatever would happen to Bella, if only because he hadn't been clever enough to stop her from starting drinking to begin with, and no matter how many times Edward had tried to make him understand that he had thought it would be better if she stayed there where he could keep an eye on her, rather than having her wandering around Forks to find whatever fun she could elsewhere, it still hadn't seemed to be enough to calm Emmett down.

Edward had apparently had a hard time explaining his reasoning to Emmett, who surely would have preferred him to stop Bella from drinking altogether instead of encouraging her, and in the end Edward had had to promise Emmett that he wouldn't let Bella leave on her own and he would make sure she got home alright to have him finally get off his back. That and to call him back the second anything funny happened.

Edward knew exactly what he meant by that. In Emmett's words, that was the same as saying if any guy tried anything with his baby sister and Edward had sure been glad Emmett couldn't see him at that moment, much less read his mind.

Despite how much he hadn't wanted to give it too much thought for fear he would just go stark crazy if he did, Edward couldn't help thinking back to that brief but so intense kiss he had exchanged with Bella and wondering how exactly Emmett would react if he only knew what his best friend had been doing with his sister, or how many not so innocent thoughts had been crossing his mind almost non-stop since then.

His bet would be that Emmett wouldn't find it funny, and even less to his liking, and best friend or not, Edward was sure he would lose a few teeth if he couldn't reign on those thoughts, or if he actually decided to pursue whatever path that kiss could lead them to.

Edward wanted nothing more than actually pursue it. Oh, man if he wanted to, but the true question was, were Bella or he anywhere ready to follow that road? He knew he could handle it, or at least he _hoped_he could handle it, but would Bella herself be able to? And would she want as much of whatever could come out of it as he could? Because if there was one thing Edward knew, it was that if he took that next step he wanted so much to take, he would probably want more than any twenty-one years old girl could think about.

Although Edward had to wonder if the girl who stood suddenly in front of him when he turned around and let Daphne go back to her drinks, could really be _only_twenty-one. Edward would have surely not believed it himself if he hadn't known her his whole life.

As much as he could admire her beauty and just how sexy he sure found her to be, Edward couldn't help reacting way more abruptly than he had meant to when he found himself face to face with Bella.

"Where the _hell_did you get that outfit?" he blurted out before he could stop himself, as he saw Bella on her feet for the very first time tonight, and for the first time, he took in the complete front of her suit.

Seeing her there then answered the question he had asked himself when he had seen her sitting at the bar, but it was worse than anything he could have even imagined. Edward had to swallow hard when his eyes traveled down the long zipper that ran down the middle of her suit and ended in a small inversed red triangle almost right between her legs, like a 'YOU ARE HERE' sign… or you could be if you are lucky enough and I deem you worthy of such an honor, he thought and barely suppressed a groan.

God, that outfit was sure a killer, and it was little wonder to Edward now if almost every guy in the club had seemed to have their eyes on Bella most of the night. With what he was seeing now, the only thing Edward could think was that a man would have to be dead or completely blind to not want this girl. And he wasn't either of that, even if with the way he had just reacted Bella could think that he didn't like what he was seeing.

Boy, would she have been wrong, and had she been more sober, Bella would have probably been miffed or taken offense at his tone, but as it was, his question didn't even register in her mind.

Instead she stepped as close to him as she could, speaking barely an inch from his ear in order to be heard above the music that was drifting from the loudspeakers that were almost too close for their comfort.

"Where have you been?" Bella asked with a cute pout that had Edward concentrating just a little too long for his sanity on her full lips once she pulled away.

That and the fact that she was close enough to him for him to smell her light perfume was enough for Edward to forget where he was and what he was supposed to be doing.

"I-I was on a break..." he stuttered like a teenager in front of his first crush, unable to think of anything more eloquent to say.

"You've been gone so long…" Bella continued, causing Edward to gulp when he felt her hands rest on his chest and noticed the fact that she almost seemed to be rubbing her body against his.

"B-Bella?" he croaked out, feeling stupid for reacting so strongly, but unable to help himself.

"Dance with me…" Bella breathed out then, her hands trailing down Edward's chest until she could reach his own hands and pull on them to lead him to the dance floor only a few feet from where they were standing.

"I-I can't… I need… I have… to go back…" Edward protested weakly and so before he could even stop her, he found himself surrounded by sweating bodies gyrating all around him, while Bella herself plastered hers to his front.

For a twenty-six years old man who had had his first taste of a woman long ago, Edward's reaction was sure embarrassing.

But then Bella Swan was no ordinary woman in his eyes, Edward had understood that long ago and had realized as well that he had never desired anyone the way he desired her.

"You work too much…" Bella whispered into his ear then, bringing Edward momentarily back to Earth, but if her words were most likely true, Edward had no answer to give to that.

At that instant, he wished more than anything that he could be anywhere but there, that he could indeed be working, because being this close to Bella was actually torture of the worst kind for him.

As Bella pressed her body even closer to his, Edward had to wonder if she was even aware of what she was doing, the way she moved against his body making it harder and harder for Edward to tell himself he shouldn't try anything.

She was making it damned near impossible for him to not forget all the reasons why they couldn't be together, all those things he had told himself countless numbers of times since he had realized that his feelings for the girl in his arms had been changing.

"Bella …" he found himself growling hoarsely when her dancing became even more sensual if possible and the fingers running through his hair at the nape of his neck threatened to make him lose his mind.

For all answer he received a soft moan this time, Bella being too busy relishing in the feel of being in Edward's arms at last after having wished for that for so long, to be able to form any type of real word.

If this was torture for Edward, it was actually pure bliss for Bella and she wished the night would never end, or if it did, that she would still be with Edward and in his arms come the morning.

Rolling her hips into his, she inhaled deeply, a mere whiff of him having the power to make her head spin faster than any amount of alcohol could have achieved. She was almost glad so, when Edward's grip on her hips tightened even more, his hands bringing her so close to him, it was almost impossible to discern where one started and the other ended now.

His words and the warning they held however, didn't match his actions, but they still made Bella gasp aloud.

"Swan, if you don't stop, _I_will be the one taking your precious virginity and I will fuck you so good, you won't ever want anyone else!" having endured all he could of her teasing, Edward groaned out the words before he could stop himself.

He was only saying the truth, though. If he had to feel her rub herself against his groin just one second longer, he was sure he would forget all about where they were and what was permitted in public and he would just take her there, right where they were.

"Is that a threat… or a promise?" Bella found herself moaning once more once she recovered, but nowhere was she prepared for Edward's reaction to her new taunting.

Before she could even realize what was about to happen, Edward's fingers threaded through her hair and the way he pulled at it to make her meet his gaze -gaze that seemed to say '_you asked for it, now you're gonna get it!_'- was the only warning she received.

The next second his lips were crashing on hers, his tongue demanding immediate entrance to her mouth and Bella couldn't do much more but allow him in.

The way he kissed her then had nothing to do with the almost too gentle way he had kissed her earlier, but even as Bella understood that she had probably pushed him too far this time, she couldn't bring herself to regret it. This was exactly what she had wanted and been begging for all night.

It only took her a few seconds to get her bearings back, once the first moment of shock had passed and then Bella was giving as good as she was receiving.

Standing on her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms completely around Edward's neck, moaning softly into his mouth when she felt her breasts press into his chest.

At that instant, she forgot about anything else. If asked later, she wouldn't have been able to say where she was, if there was still anyone in the room with them, if the music was even still playing.

The only thing she could still hear was the pounding in her ears, the only thing she felt was the way Edward seemed to want to cradle her as close to his body as he could, one hand still in her hair while the other caressed the small of her back while he devoured her mouth and drove her insane, and she would have gladly spent the rest of her night just there, kissing Edward, if the need for air hadn't eventually made them part.

"Edward …" Bella moaned out when he pulled away from her, only to go and nibble on her neck.

"You _really_shouldn't play these games…" he warned throatily, breathing hard, but unable to let go of her just yet, no matter how loud his mind was screaming at him to not let things go any further.

"Why not?" Bella demanded just as breathlessly, head spinning worse than it already had for part of the night.

"Do you know how close I am to…" Edward bit on her bottom lip, pulling at it with a groan, but before he could complete his sentence, a short tap on his shoulder made him come back to Earth and pull away from Bella, who for now was just too dazed to even react.

"What?" he barked out before he could stop himself, not sure whether he should thank the guy for stopping what he was sure was about to happen, or kill him for interrupting them and preventing him from taking Bella just there, in the middle of her brother's club dance floor.

"I'm sorry to bother you… but we're having a problem at one of the pool tables." Christopher, one of the men who were in charge of the games rooms informed Edward, seeing that his boss wasn't apparently -and understandably so- very pleased with the interruption, but knowing that there would be more hell to pay if something really wrong happened and he hadn't been informed beforehand.

Edward sighed in frustration then, but knew that he had no choice but to follow him, after all, Christopher was only doing what he had always asked his employees to do.

Edward's uncle had taught him to always be aware of what was happening in his place and Edward had made it a point to do just that, overseeing everything, even if he usually let the bouncers handle the more 'physical' matters. Still, Edward didn't want to be caught off guard if anything happened between one of his employees and a client, or if they had to call the police and explain what exactly had happened. It would surely not reflect well on him, or look good for the club owner to not know what was going on practically under his nose.

Edward was really reluctant to have to leave Bella just where she was, but part of him couldn't help thinking that maybe it was for the best, and it was with a small apologetic smile that he left to see what the problem could be now.

God, sometimes it really sucked to be the boss.

"How close to what?" seeing Edward leaving her planted just there eventually snapped Bella out of her trance and she couldn't help crying out, her attempt to follow Edward failing miserably as she tried to fight off the dancing bodies standing on her way all around her. "Edward! _Edward_ … how close you were to _what_?"

Edward didn't hear her over all the noise though, and he didn't stop either, making Bella stomp her foot in frustration as she couldn't believe that he could just leave her like that, like nothing had even happened.

Hadn't he felt what she had? Hadn't his skin felt like it was burning everywhere they had touched? Hadn't that kiss left him trembling from head to toes, like it had her?  
>Apparently not, Bella thought grimly, or leaving and dismissing her wouldn't have been so easy for him.<p>

Angry at him, Bella stomped to the bar, ready to drown her sudden misery in more alcohol -at least that hadn't disappointed her so far- when she was stopped on her way by a handsome guy who apparently wanted to be the one offering her her next drink.

Seeing there her chance to get what she wanted without having to justify herself or being convinced she should call it quits, she was quick to accept, not thinking for a second that she didn't know the guy and should probably not say yes, and even less that she had certainly drunk more than was already reasonable.

When Edward came back a little more than twenty minutes later, he couldn't find Bella anywhere and immediately went into panic mode, fearing that she had left after the way he had planted her there.

While he had been overseeing that the bouncers took care of the two drunks who had started a brawl because they had lost some money at the pool tables, he hadn't been able to think about anything but Bella, that kiss and what could have happened between them, had they not been interrupted, and he couldn't help cursing the two idiots who refused obstinately to leave and prevented him from going back to her, despite having been told that their night there was over.

Edward knew he needed to talk to Bella, but more than that, that he should control himself, at least until he would have made sure that Bella's mind was clear enough to know exactly what she was doing, who she was doing it with, and where this was going.

Considering what she had revealed to him earlier and what he knew her to want to do, the last thing Edward wanted was to take advantage of her and her inebriated state, even if it was clear that he would rather cut himself an arm than letting anyone but him take Bella's virginity, or even just touch her tonight.

Stepping behind the bar, he immediately interrogated the bartenders, knowing that every one of them knew Bella, but he was only half relieved when one of them informed him that Bella hadn't left and that he had seen her dancing only minutes ago.

It didn't take Edward long to find her after that, indeed dancing, but she wasn't alone. Some guy was dancing behind her, hands on her hips, body plastered against her back, but it was the fact that surprisingly Bella was looking right back at him from where she was standing near the railing that separated the dance floor from the rest of the club, that had Edward clenching his teeth and fists.

Apparently Bella knew exactly what she was doing and Edward wanted nothing more than go where she was and drag her out of there, but he refused to show her how much what she was doing was indeed affecting him.

The way she kept looking at him almost defiantly seemed to be saying that all this was only his fault and that she wouldn't be doing this if he hadn't left her so unceremoniously in the first place, but Edward swore to himself that he wouldn't give in, no matter what.

The next few minutes were a battle of will then, between Bella, who kept her gaze on Edward but continued to dance as sensually as she could in her state with that Cameron guy who hadn't left her side since he had started offering her drinks, and Edward who fought with all his might to not snap and just go and break the guy's face, whenever he saw him run his hands over Bella's body.

Edward briefly wondered if he was actually the guy Bella had said she wanted to lose her virginity to, but at this point, he really didn't care. As far as he was concerned, chosen one or not, he had no right to touch her like that and he would make sure the guy understood that if he had to.

Neither Bella nor Edward seemed to want to be the first one to crack, until the rapid songs changed to slower ones and Bella decided she had had enough dancing for now.

She was all too ready to leave her dance partner behind, forget all about him and go and join Edward again, deciding that she had done all she could to make him jealous but without much success unfortunately, but apparently that wasn't exactly to the other guy's liking.

Before Bella could move completely away, he was grabbing her arm and bringing her back to him almost forcefully, making Bella gasp aloud as she found herself bumping against his front.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?... we're just starting to have fun…" Cameron drawled out just a little too close to Bella's ear for her comfort and she only realized how much trouble she had apparently put herself in when his grip tightened on her arm the more she struggled to make him release her.

"Let me go!" she demanded harshly, trying to pry his fingers off her arm with her other hand, but to no avail. He was stronger than she could be herself, even if he was just as intoxicated, if not more.

"Ah…I knew it… the second I saw you… I just knew you would be one of those little cockteasers…" the guy nearly spat out the words now, Bella not recognizing the gentle man who had first offered her a drink, and she couldn't stop the shivers of fear that coursed up her spine at that instant. "And you know what?… I just _hate_cockteasers!"

From behind the bar, Edward took in the scene and instantly saw red at seeing that guy he had disliked on sight the second he had seen him with Bella, touch her the way he was now.

Before anyone could react or understand what was happening, they saw who some still thought was only a bartender there literally _jump_ over the bar, breaking a few glasses and toppling over a couple of bar stools on his way and run toward the dance floor, the only thing he threw over his shoulder to explain what he was doing being a quick '_call security!_' to whoever would hear it.

Aidan had been back for a while now and he was the one to send someone to fetch the bouncers, he and Jordan immediately going after Edward when they saw where he was heading and realized themselves what was happening.

Bella was still arguing with Cameron, who kept preventing her from leaving and calling her every name in the book he could think of, when Edward joined them and she could only cry out in surprise when suddenly he had no choice but to let her go, the 170 pounds of hard flesh that barreled into him out of nowhere making him stumble backward with a groan.

"What the…" he growled out as he picked up his sorry ass off the floor, still a little disoriented, and looked at the man who was now standing just in front of him, fists tightly clenched at his sides and looking like he was ready to murder him.

"Touch her again and I kill you!" Edward promised menacingly, his tone leaving no doubt about how serious he could be about the threat, even if the clear message didn't seem to register in the other man's mind.

"Who the fuck are you?" he spat back, still feeling the impact of his fall and rubbing at his sore back. Yet when he should have kept his mouth shut after that and walked away, he couldn't help adding in a sneer. "Man, I feel sorry for you if you're actually this little whore's boyfriend!"

Bella watched Edward's nostrils flare as he heard the other guy insulting her once more and she barely had time to breathe out Edward's name in warning, hoping to stop him from doing whatever she was sure he had in mind after that.

She was too late however, and she could only watch in horror as the next second Edward's fist landed on Cameron's face, making him stumble backward again almost on impact.

He recovered faster than the first time though, and Bella found herself shouting at them to stop when he retaliated almost instantly, charging forward and hitting Edward right in the stomach and taking him with him.

Bella heard Edward groan as he hit the railing just behind him with a force that was sure to leave his back badly bruised afterwards, and she brought her hands to her mouth to stop herself from crying aloud once more.

"Do something!" she pleaded to no one in particular, and was only slightly relieved when she saw Aidan and that other bartender she couldn't seem to get the name right tonight, trying to separate Edward and Cameron.

People had stopped dancing by now and were watching the scene, while trying to not get caught in the middle, or risking getting hurt, as the two men kept throwing and dodging punches and they almost groaned in disappointment when a few bouncers arrived at last and managed to finally separate the two men.

Aidan was already telling everyone around that the show was over and that they could go back to their dancing, or whatever the hell they wanted to do now, and Edward was all but ordering the bouncers to get the guy out of his sight and never let him set foot in his club ever again, while Bella just stood there, still completely petrified.

Unable to move just yet, she watched as one of the bouncers looked at her and then joked with Edward about the fact that he was apparently keeping them really busy tonight, but one would have had to be blind to not see that Edward didn't find it in the least funny.

He grumbled something under his breath as he shook his now bruised hand and then left the dance floor without a second glance at Bella.

The way he moved past her like he suddenly couldn't even stand the sight of her now was enough to snap Bella out of her torpor and she ran after him desperately, unable to bear the thought of Edward being angry at her, even if she knew she only had herself to blame for that.

"Edward?" she breathed out tentatively as she caught up with him just beyond the railing, but she wasn't anywhere prepared for Edward's reaction, or the way he looked at her when he abruptly turned to face her.

"Just what the hell did you think you were doing, huh?" he all but yelled at her, Bella standing frozen on her spot, even if she was only mildly surprised by the force of his outburst. "Keep that up and very soon you won't have anything to lose willingly!" he predicted in a hiss and Bella could only gulp as she realized how right he was.

She had played a dangerous game and who knew what could have happened to her if Edward hadn't intervened, or if a guy like Cameron had managed to drag her outside before anyone could stop him.

Edward had every right to be angry, of course, she perfectly understood that, she had been stupid and careless, but that didn't mean that she could bear the thought of him leaving her like that.

"I'm sorry… I'm… I'm so sorry…" she whispered achingly as she grabbed his arm and stopped him from moving any further. She knew it would probably not be enough to say that she was sorry for the way she had handled her disappointment and frustration at seeing Edward ignoring her so easily, but she didn't know what else to say. "Don't be mad… please, Edward … d-don't… don't be mad at me…" she pleaded, tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of Edward not forgiving her, and one real look at her was eventually enough to make Edward realize just how shaken up Bella had really been.

"Shit, Swan …" he sighed as he saw her lips tremble and her large glistening doe eyes plead with him even more than her words already had. "You really know how to mess with a guy's head, huh?" he added in a soft murmur when he understood that he wouldn't be able to stay mad at her, or stand the sight of her in tears more than a few seconds, no matter how truly angry he had been just minutes ago. "Come here…"

Bella barely resisted the urge she felt to break down into sobs when she found herself in Edward's arms and he held her just as tightly as she could hold him herself.

She didn't think she had ever felt as relieved as she was feeling at that instant in fact and she swore inwardly that she would never again give Edward any reason to be upset with her.

"I'm sorry…" she reiterated once more, the way she whispered the words into Edward's ear making it even harder for him to offer her only comfort at that instant.

"Shh… it's okay…" he assured her as he caressed the nape of her neck and placed a chaste kiss against the crown of her head. "Just promise me to be more careful from now on!" he went on as they pulled apart and their eyes met.

"I promise." Bella answered without even thinking about it twice, ready to promise him anything he wanted, as long as he never looked at her like he had only a moment ago.

"And no more dancing for you tonight…" he added as a joke, but could admit, at least to himself, that he would actually be relieved if she agreed and didn't give him another chance to get into a fight.

"No more dancing…" Bella nodded and gave Edward a small smile that only made him want to kiss her even more than he had the second she had started to tear up.

"Okay…" Edward said as he released her at last, even if it was obvious that he was quite reluctant to have to do so. "I need to go back to the bar…" he continued before looking back at her and adding almost hopefully. "You're coming back with me?"

The way he uttered the words made it clear that he didn't want to force her to do anything she didn't want to, but that he wasn't really willing to let her leave his sight again for all that.

"Yes." Bella replied right away and smiled at him again when Edward laced his fingers with hers and tugged her toward the bar.

When Bella moved to perch herself on her usual stool again though, Edward stopped her from doing so and Bella couldn't help looking at him curiously when he took it and moved it completely behind the counter.

"You'll be safer here…" he explained when Bella kept watching him, and she understood that they probably had had enough emotions for one night and that he was certainly right.

The further she stayed from anyone else there, the less trouble they would be both in.

"Okay…" she agreed and sat down like a good girl, surely not minding being this close to Edward, moreover with everything that had happened.

Even if things hadn't turned out as she had hoped they would and her little stunt had backfired on her, she still couldn't forget about what had happened _before_that.

As she watched Edward work around and attend to customers with his usual gentleness and cheerfulness, Bella had to wonder how he did it and if nothing affected him at all, or more than just a few minutes.

He didn't seem to be thinking about his fight with her last dance partner, and even less about what had led to it.

Bella herself could barely think about anything but the way Edward had kissed her earlier and held her and all but made her lose her mind with a mere touch, and the only thing she wanted was to be able to go back to where they were before they were interrupted, even if she had clearly done a poor job showing Edward that.

More than anything in fact, she wished they could pick things up where they had left them, but somehow she doubted Edward would be willing to do anything with her behind his bar, even merely kissing her again. There were just too many people around for that, and paradoxically just not enough to hide them from the rest of the world, like they had been earlier on the dance floor.

Edward looked just too busy supervising everything anyway, for her to try anything now, or at least it seemed so, even if Bella was pleased to see him look her way every other minute nonetheless.

Every time he did, he smiled at her or winked at her, and every time Bella couldn't stop her heart from skipping a few beats. If she weren't so in love with him already, she would still find him to be the most handsome man she had ever seen, no doubt about that.

He looked even more gorgeous when he was working, if that were even possible, but that didn't stop her from stopping him the next time he passed by her, shooting one of her legs up and in his way, and definitely grabbing his immediate attention.

"Hey!" Edward whispered, stepping close to her almost immediately and only realizing his position when he was already between her legs and the one that had stopped him closed around his knee. He tried not to think about it, but in such a position, the only thing that could cross his mind was kissing her again. Kissing her and so much more. "You okay here?" he asked instead of doing what he really wanted to do with his lips… and hers.

"I'm bored." Bella confessed with a little pout that had Edward just about melting just where he was.

"I'm sure you are… I'm sorry… the place is packed…" Edward apologized, certainly wishing he could spend more time with her just as much as she did, but that was kind of hard with the crowd, just a few feet from them, all wanting to have their drinks as quickly as possible. "You look kind of tired, too…" he added as he took a long look at her and tenderly pushed a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"A little…" Bella admitted, holding her breath as Edward's fingers lingered at her temple.

"Okay… just give me half an hour… an hour top, and I'll take you home, okay?" Edward offered, promising himself that he would find time for that, as hard as that could prove to be, but would surely not let her leave on her own. Not when it was clear she had yet to sober up.

"I don't want to go home!" Bella all but grumbled, as she absentmindedly played with the buttons on Edward's shirt, clearly not liking his suggestion. "I had plans for tonight…" she added, which for a moment had Edward groaning inwardly.

"Yeah, I think I remember something about that…" he acknowledged, although he would have surely preferred she hadn't remembered herself.

The only thing that was stopping him from going into full jealous mode again was the fact that it was quite obvious to him that Bella was in no state to have wild sex with anyone at this point.

Besides, since she was sitting behind the bar now, there was no chance anyone could approach her, not without him seeing them and then Edward would make sure to stop them, so her plans for the night looked clearly compromised, if not completely ruined. Not that Edward would cry over the fact that Bella would apparently not be losing her virginity tonight to the 'mysterious guy' she had chosen of course, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

Instead, he asked her if she wanted anything else to drink while she waited for him, and came back with a coke when Bella just shrugged, knowing that that was what she usually drank when she was there and was not trying to get plastered.

Bella thanked him when he gave it to her, even despite her sudden sour mood and Edward was convinced that he could leave her on her own for a little while, or at least until things slowed down a little at the club and he could afford to leave and take her home.

He should have known better though and realized that at that moment and in her state, Bella wasn't exactly to be trusted.

Feeling really frustrated as she saw her chances of finishing the night with Edward vanish, Bella didn't think about it twice before reaching for the first bottle of alcohol she could find at her fingertips, not even caring if Edward or any of the other bartenders caught her in the act.

She didn't care either that the amount of whisky she poured into her drink exceeded the amount of coke that was left in her glass after a few quick gulps, or that the liquid burned her throat as she downed the new mix faster than she probably should have.

Edward had apparently not gotten her message, or if he had, he wasn't in the least interested, otherwise he wouldn't have been suggesting he took her home, right?

Maybe she should just blurt it all out, look him in the eye and just tell him exactly what she had come here for, _who_she had come here for, but as she let her eyes follow him while he kept working, Bella didn't seem to find it in her to tell Edward the truth. The potential for rejection seemed just too real and strong suddenly, and contrary to what she had wanted to believe at first, no amount of alcohol seemed to be able, or enough, to change that. She was just too damned chicken to take such risk.

In that case, Bella didn't see what it would change if she drank a little more or a little less, and so it was little wonder if it didn't take her more than twenty minutes to gulp down a third of the bottle of whisky she had managed to hide from almost everyone's eyes.

And after those twenty minutes, if she had definitely not worked up the nerve to talk to Edward, she couldn't stop herself from following him after he had stopped by her side one more time, even if it was just long enough to touch a finger to the tip of her nose and smile at her.

Unaware of the fact that Bella was now just behind him, Edward squatted down behind the bar to search for more bottles, and Bella couldn't stop herself from blurting out the first thing that crossed her mind at the sight.

"Has anyone ever told you, you have the sexiest ass in the world?" though her words were rather slurred, there was no way Edward could have not heard her with the way she uttered them, way louder than she probably should have.

"What?" he turned around with another smile, clearly surprised to find Bella there behind him when he had left her still sitting a few feet from where he was now.

"You have… the sexiest ass I've ever seen…" Bella repeated, thinking that Edward hadn't gotten what she had said just seconds ago.

"No… I… I heard you… I… thanks, I guess…" Edward awkwardly replied, not really knowing how to answer to something like that, even if he was clearly flattered she could think so. He was just more concerned about her sudden appearance, her glazed eyes and the funny way she was looking at him at that instant when he had left her more or less okay, making him frown almost instantly. "You okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Bella retorted with an enamored smile as she pressed herself against Edward and turned loving eyes up to him.

"Bella?" Edward's frown deepened as Bella nearly fell into him and he had to steady her.

"Hmm… I don't think I should have had that last shot of whisky…" Bella admitted between giggles, apparently having discovered how traitorous that beverage could be.

Apparently whisky let you think that you could handle more without feeling a thing, and then after a few more glasses, it just really kicked your ass without you expecting it, making you all but forget even your own name.

"Whisky?... but you didn't drink whi-…" Edward trailed off as he walked Bella back to the stool she had occupied only minutes before and he spotted the half empty bottle just behind it on a shelf, realization dawning on him almost instantly then. "God, Bella …"

"Whisky's no good for me!... nooooo good…" Bella whispered with a small shrug as she heard Edward's obviously disapproving tone.

"No kidding!" Edward snorted as he tried to help her perch herself back on her stool, only to have her miss it and nearly fall flat on her ass. She would surely have if Edward hadn't gotten so quick reflexes. "God, you're really drunk!"

"And you're really hot… guess we all have our cross to bear, huh?" was all Bella could find to answer, before she found herself giggling like a schoolgirl once more.

"Oh, and look at that… you're a funny drunk, too, huh?" Edward shook his head, although he barely could stop the smile that threatened to creep upon his lips at the moment, even despite the situation.

"Right now, I'm a ho-… a hon-… hmm… a _horny_drunk…" Bella managed to whisper after a few tries, her index finger stabbing into Edward's hard chest, as if for emphasis.

"Yeah, too bad Lucky Guy didn't show up, huh?" Edward remarked as he seemed to tire of seeing Bella unsuccessfully try to sit on her stool, and eventually picked her up and sat her down himself, his hands remaining on her hips until he was sure she was steady enough and she wouldn't fall over.

"Oh, he showed up alright… been there all night in fact… I just couldn't… I didn't…" Bella revealed, before trailing off with a frustrated sigh. "I am… I'm such a coward…"

"Well, it's his loss…" Edward replied, not really knowing what to say to that.

He doubted that Bella would appreciate it if he admitted just how happy he was himself that she had not been able to go through her plans. She wouldn't like it either, if he questioned her and asked her to show him who the bastard was, so he could have just a few words with him and make sure the guy knew there would be hell to pay if he just looked at Bella a second longer than what he himself judged to be decent.

"You think so?... Maybe he wouldn't see it that way… maybe…." Bella lamented with a pout that had Edward's heart tightening in his chest. Apparently, whoever that guy could be, Bella seemed to be just a little too serious about him for Edward's liking. "Oh, he doesn't care anyway… I'm just a baby for him…"

"Well, then he's really stupid…" Edward said softly as he forced her to look up at him, not liking how defeated she suddenly looked.

If he hadn't already hated the guy before, he surely did now.

"I don't know about that…" Bella shrugged before adding a little enigmatically. At least it was for Edward at that point. "Are you stupid, Edward?"

"What?" her sudden question caught him off guard and his quizzical expression would have been comical if Bella hadn't lamented, even in her state, the fact that Edward could still remain so clueless when it came to her feelings for him.

"Never mind… you're right… you are _right_… it's your loss… his… I mean… it's his loss… stupid, stupid… m-man… men are _aaall sooo_stupid…" Bella rambled on drunkenly, Edward having a hard time following what she was saying, and then, before he could try and decipher her words, she was stepping down her stool, Edward having to catch her once more before she could stumble and go and kiss the floor.

"What are you doing?" he couldn't help asking when he saw her reach for the bottle of whisky no one had apparently seen there and bothered to put back in its place, Edward barely managing to stop her from pouring herself another drink. "Oh, no… I don't think so… you've gotten enough for a first night…"

"Nope… uh-huh… I don't think so…" Bella negated and repeated his words, as she made a grab for the bottle, only to have Edward put it out of her reach and turn her around so she couldn't get it.

"Yes, I know so… definitely more than you should already have, trust me!" Edward retorted and moved her in the direction of the backroom, knowing that there was really only one thing to do now. "No more alcohol for you tonight… and I'm taking you upstairs until you sober up!" he added, although he knew it would certainly take her hours to accomplish that, considering her state.

"No, no… the night's still young…" Bella contradicted, trying to have him release her off his firm grip, but to no avail.

"The night's definitely over for you, sweetie… upstairs you go, and that's non-negotiable!" Edward threw back and pushed her once more in the right direction. It wasn't as if she could be any match to him or to his strength anyway.

"Okay, okay… upstairs we go… _up_stairs… _upstairs_…" Bella resigned herself to her fate and started to walk with Edward instead of having him simply dragging her, before she remembered that she was missing something. "Wait, wait… my purse… I can't leave without my purse…"

"Right, purse…" Edward repeated, spotting the small black purse she was referring to almost immediately, once he saw where she was looking. "I'll get it for you, just stay right here!" he commanded and forced her to lean against the wall near the backroom door, while he went and got it.

Purse in hand seconds later, he joined her again and was ready to help her upstairs when she stopped walking once more, even despite the arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

"No, no, wait… I didn't pay them… I didn't…" Bella cried out as the thought crossed her mind, her words having Edward all but rolling his eyes as he heard her.

"Don't worry about that… I know the owners, I'm sure it won't be a problem…" Edward joked as he nudged her forward, chuckling softly when Bella turned round eyes up to him.

"You do? Me, too!" she said just a little too cheerfully, like she had just discovered something incredible. "One of them is my brother… and the other… the other…"

"The other? Yes?" Edward urged her to continue when she trailed off, smiling down at her as he waited for her answer.

"I can't tell you… you will tell him… and then he'll know…" Bella whispered so seriously and conspiratorially that it had Edward laughing aloud this time.

"You're right… chances are he will…" he just said with a short laugh, helping her up the stairs that led to his and Emmett's apartment.

The task was made all the more difficult since Bella seemed barely able to put one foot before the other at this stage, and Edward had to support most of her weight, even if she didn't seem to be aware of that fact herself.

Reaching the door, Edward had all the trouble in the world opening it with one arm still holding Bella and her purse in the other hand, in the end deciding that he wouldn't accomplish anything that way.

"God, Emmett's really going to kill me for letting you drink at all…" he grumbled under his breath, before having Bella lean against the wall behind her and handing her her purse so he could use his now free hands to unlock and open the door. "Take this."

"Oh, I have a purse like this one, too!" Bella exclaimed as she took her own purse, but seemed to have forgotten all about the fact that it was actually hers. "Why are you giving me your purse?... you can't give me your purse… it's yours… you don't…" Bella babbled out, Edward swearing inwardly that this was really the last time he would let her drink anything remotely alcoholic.

"Okay, just hold on a second." He mumbled as he pushed the door open and tried to make it stay that way so he could guide Bella inside the apartment.

"Mmmm…" Bella moaned out when she felt herself sway slightly, the fact that she didn't completely being only due to Edward holding her up again.

"Hey, there… easy… just stay here…" Edward murmured as he steadied her, but nearly groaned the next second when his sudden move brought him only inches from her and he saw her lick her lips as she stared at him.

Thoughts of their earlier kisses flashed through his mind again and it took all Edward had to not just kiss her again, just where she was. Drunk or not, it didn't seem to matter to him, and it was only the fact that he was almost sure that Bella wouldn't remember any of it later that stopped him from doing so.

If he kissed her again, Edward wanted her to remember it and feel it in her bones, just like he was sure he would himself. He didn't want her to have no recollection of it once she would have gone to sleep and sobered up.

Seconds seemed to turn into eternity however, before Edward was able to pull away from the doe eyes that were boring right through him and it was only when Bella wrapped an arm around his neck and seemed to pull him to her, just a little too close for his own comfort, that Edward seemed to snap out of the spell she had cast on him.

"Okay… just come here…" he whispered at last, scooping her into his arms, if only to spare himself the trouble of seeing her trip on her own feet once more.

"Oh…" Bella giggled despite herself, as they crossed the apartment door, Edward nearly dropping her when he heard what she came up with next. "We're not married yet, Edward … you don't need to carry me over the threshold."

"Right…" he chuckled nonetheless, moving into the living room with her still in his arms.

"One day though… one day, I'm _so_going to marry you…" she continued in the same cheerful, drunken tone, unaware of what the words were doing to Edward.

"Of course you will…" he just said, doing his best to not picture the situation, or a white-clad Bella in his arms as he prepared himself to make her his wife in every sense of the word.

God, just the thought was enough to make his heart hammer faster in his chest and the blood to boil in his veins.

"Wow… the honeymoon suite!" Bella exclaimed suddenly as she took a look around, pulling Edward out of his thoughts. "Hmm… funny, it looks a little like my brother's apartment." That seemed to leave her a little confused and Edward couldn't help shaking his head in response.

"It _is_your brother's apartment." He answered patiently and carried her to the couch where he put her down gently.

"Oh, but he's not here, right?" Bella asked a little apprehensively, looking around like she was expecting Emmett to come out of some hidden place all of a sudden and scold her for her behavior.

Now that wouldn't be fun at all.

"No, he's not…" Edward told her in the same gentle tone as he tried to make her sit still just long enough for him to figure out his next move.

"Cause I can't have my way with you if my brother's around…" Bella continued pensively as if Edward hadn't even talked, probably not aware of what she had just said, or the fact that Edward was suddenly looking at her like he was seeing her for the first time. "That would be too weird… I don't think I want him to see me naked… talk about awkward…"

"Emmett's at Rosalie's, remember?... he's staying there tonight..." Edward reminded her, choosing to ignore her rambling, since he didn't really know what he should make of it, or how serious she could actually be at that point, and instead he concentrated on figuring out how to take the strappy shoes she was wearing off.

Okay, it couldn't be that complicated, right? And better that than letting himself think about a _naked_ Bella, having her way with _him_.

"Oh, I know what they're doing, too…" Bella pursued and frowned slightly as she seemed to remember something quite disturbing. "I think I saw them once… I stumbled right in on them at New Moon… or was it here?... I think… I…"

"Bella, sweetie… maybe you shouldn't think so much right now… you're gonna hurt yourself…" Edward chuckled at that, although he hoped she wouldn't tell him any more about Emmett's and Rosalie's sexual adventures.

It was bad enough that he had had to hear them one too many times to not leave him already scarred for life, he surely didn't want Bella to give him any details, or know what she had seen herself.

"Right… you're right… you always are…" Bella agreed with a small smile, watching as Edward delicately pulled her shoes off her feet, but then another cute frown seemed to mar her forehead and Edward braced himself for the worst. "Except when you're wrong of course… coz then you can't be right… if you're wrong, right?... I mean not right-right… then you're wrong… oh, this is just so confusing…"

"Baby, seriously… just stop talking for a little while…" Edward suggested as he straightened up and pressed a finger to her lips, sure that she would just give herself a monstrous headache if she tried to figure out whatever seemed to be going through her mind at that instant, and Bella forgot everything about what that had been when she then felt Edward's thumb tenderly caressing her cheekbone as he finished whispering the words.

The air around them seemed to heat up all of a sudden and both felt the change, even if Edward probably did more clearly than Bella could herself. Or at least he seemed to understand where it was coming from better than Bella could. He knew exactly what was happening there, or what definitely could if he didn't reign on his own body reactions and those damned hormones, that only seemed to be screaming one thing to him at that instant. Make Bella his at last.

Unfortunately, Bella herself, voluntarily or not, didn't seem to be very willing to help him with the task.

"Mmmm… is it hot in here, or is it just me?" she breathed out suddenly, and Edward had to swallow hard himself as at the same time, she reached for the zipper on her suit and lowered it just a few inches more than what was decent, or reasonable for his sanity.

Before he could do the right thing and look away, he caught sight of two perfect round breasts and more skin than he could certainly handle at that instant, and he would surely have thought the little vixen in front of him was trying to innocently seduce him, if it hadn't been obvious to him that she was just too out of it to even just think about it, or really realize what she was doing, or what that clearly did to him.

"No, it's not… and this… this stays here for now…" Edward replied and pulled the zipper up again, before he seriously lost it and let her get out of her outfit and prance around half-naked, if that was what she wanted. "Now, just stay here… I'm gonna bring you some coffee and something for the hangover, you're going to need it…" he told her then and moved to his feet before he could do something he would regret… like making her lie down on that couch, and joining her, and clearly taking advantage of the situation, no matter the fact that he really didn't want to do that to her.

Bella only nodded at that, too out of it to do anything else at this point anyway, but that didn't stop her from dreamingly following Edward with her eyes as he moved to go to the kitchen, or sighing when he eventually disappeared from her sight.

Even as her coffee was done and he had found the aspirin he had been looking for, Edward still took a few minutes to calm himself down, taking in huge gulps of air, while he tried to convince himself that, just because he was alone with Bella, he had no reason to panic.

After all, it wasn't as if anything was going to happen. He would just give her that coffee, let her sober up and take her back home once he would have made sure she could stay on her own, and everything would be alright. No, there was no reason for him to panic, because nothing was going to change tonight.

With that thought in mind, the coffee in one hand and the aspirin in the other, he went back to the living room, a fond smile stretching over his lips the second he stepped in and he took in the scene in front of him.

Apparently Bella had not been able to wait for him and she was now stretched on the couch, hands joined and folded under her head, fast asleep, but looking just as beautiful as she had awake, as far as Edward was concerned.

Depositing what he was carrying on the coffee table, he squatted down before her and drank her in a few minutes in silence, marveling at her perfect features. Seeing her like this, looking so innocent yet so gorgeous, Edward didn't have a hard time understanding how, or why, he had let himself fall in love with her, without the slightest chance of stopping it from happening. Yes, he could definitely understand it, even if he still wished he could fight it.

Refusing to dwell on that for now, he pushed a few strands of hair behind her ear, brushed a soft innocent kiss over her temple and wished her sweet dreams, and then he straightened up again at last, knowing that there were still a few things he needed to take care of downstairs at the club before he could relax himself, or think about going to bed.

Considering how much she had drunk, Edward knew Bella wouldn't wake up any time soon now and that he would most likely be back before she could, but that didn't stop him from leaving her a short note near the aspirin, just in case he was wrong and she woke up, only to find the apartment empty.

Reaching for the plaid that had been thrown over the back of the couch, he then covered her with it, although he doubted she would be cold, and then exited the apartment without making a noise so to not disturb her sleep, safe in the knowledge that at least now, here, in the confines of his apartment, nothing could happen to her.

~ o * o ~

**TBC…**

**Your thoughts are welcomed of course, so don't hesitate to press the review button!**


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